As the best family law lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “do I need a prenuptial agreement?” I have a lot of people who come to me and ask me about prenuptial agreements. Well, as you may know, in Arizona we are a community property state, and so that means property that you acquire during the marriage will be subject to Arizona community property laws. So to counter this, sometimes people come to me and they say: “hey we’re getting married. We want to get a prenuptial agreement.” Well, let me tell you a story about client of mine, Emily, who came to me about a month before her wedding and she and Tom were going to get married. And Tom had been divorced before so he was a little gun shy about getting married again because he knew how the Arizona property laws could work, and he wanted to avoid a situation in which there was going to be an ugly divorce should he and Emily get divorced. Well, Emily came to me and said: “hey, I’m getting married in about a month and Tom and his lawyer had drafted up this prenuptial agreement and I need an attorney to look at this and help me understand my rights.”

I’m glad that she came to me, but also it’s kind of an interesting situation, because when somebody comes to you with a prenuptial agreement, the first thing that anybody thinks is the attorney’s gonna say well of course don’t sign this. Well, the interesting thing is: Emily wanted the prenuptial agreement as well as Tom, but she wanted to understand how it would work and what options were there. So Emily and I kind of talked about, “Alright, well what is it that you and tom really want to accomplish here?” Because I don’t think Tom wanted to take advantage of her and I don’t think Emily wanted to be a “gold digger”, so to speak, and just take all of Tom’s money, but they both wanted to create their future together in a way that made sense for both of them financially. Emily was self sufficient. Tom was self sufficient and actually did really well for himself, and so Emily and I talked and we talked about the different situations that could come up. If Emily and Tom decided to have kids, what would they do? Would she stay home with the kids? Would she go back to work and continue to further her career? What would they do with their retirement savings? How would they work toward their future? What would they do with the property? Because Tom owned a house and Emily would be moving into that house, well would they put that house in both names?

The attorney who had prepared the prenuptial agreement for Tom knew that they wanted to do things and had certainly drafted it in Tom’s favor. Because a few years back the Arizona court of appeals struck down a case in which there was a prenuptial agreement because both parties did not have different attorneys, it’s common practice now for both husband and wife to have different attorneys to review these things. Tom’s attorney knew that and Tom’s attorney had mentioned to Tom, “Yeah, you should have Emily go and seek out counsel.” And she did. Well I came at this and looked at it as like- I’m not wanting to blow up these guys’ marriage. They love each other, they wanna get married and they don’t really want to do evil to each other, but it’s important that Emily understand what she wants, as well as Tom understand what he wanted. And so sitting down with Emily, we kind of looked through different scenarios and I kind of played a lot of hypotheticals out: “Well. what if you get married and stay home with kids and then he’s relying on you, would you need spousal maintenance at that point? What about retirement savings? How are you guys going to pay for your house when you’ve got money and he’s got money, but he’s got a lot more money? What are you gonna do with how you pay for the house and making sure that you can save for your retirement?”

Because one situation that could happen is; Tom and Emily could get married, have kids, she stays at home primarily with the kids, meanwhile Tom’s career continues to take off and he’s making substantial money and putting substantial money away for retirement and then worst case scenario, they get divorced fifteen years down the road, and now Emily doesn’t have any retirement savings. But because the prenuptial agreement that they came in to fifteen years before said that his retirement would be his and hers would be hers, well they’re at a significant disadvantage. And so we were able to look at it and look at some hypotheticals and put language in there that made sense to him and made sense to her, and that would provide for some of these eventualities and also, most importantly, allowed her to plan what she was going to do with her career now, as it relates to what the prenuptial agreement ultimately said. We didn’t blow up the marriage. They ended up getting married and they were both happy, and we made the marriage a happy day, but we were able to address a lot of these concerns that come up.

People come to lawyers and they think, “Oh, lawyers just create more problems than exists.” Well, I don’t think that’s completely fair because, as a lawyer, I don’t create problems, I just point out issues that potentially could arise and it’s important to think about these issues so you don’t get yourself in a situation in which fifteen years down the road, you come back and you regret what you had done. It’s all about being informed and if you come and see me at the law offices of Kevin Jensen, I’ll sit down with you and I’ll take time to understand what you want to do and what you’re wanting to accomplish, so that we don’t end up in a situation in which you signed something that you don’t know what it means and you’re not properly informed. Come and see me, I’ll take the time to sit down with you, and we’ll do right by you.

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As the best family law lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “how do I choose an Arizona family law attorney?” One of the most important things you can do when you’re contemplating a divorce or a child custody issue that you may need to go into court is to find the right attorney for you. Most of the clients that I meet with have never dealt with an attorney before. They come into my office, they’re worried, and they don’t know how to proceed and so having the right attorney is so important. But oftentimes, because they’ve never gone to court before or had to have an attorney before, they don’t know what to look for. So let me provide a little bit of advice on what to look for when you’re seeking an attorney for a family law situation. You want an attorney who, first and foremost, is gonna listen to you and understand what’s going on in your life.

I try not to come in with any preconceived notions as to what is the best route for a case, because your case may be different than the last case I dealt with. You have your specific needs and I want to understand what you need. The other thing that is very important to understand is attorneys wear multiple hats. Most people think of an attorney as, “I want somebody who’s going to go and fight for me in court.” And absolutely, that is an important attribute of an attorney, and we here at Genesis Family Law and Divorce Lawyers are great at fighting for what our clients need in court, but that’s not the only hat we wear. The other hat, just as important, is we advise our clients. And this, arguably, could be even more important because when you come into our office, you’re worried, you’re dealing with some situation in which you have never dealt before, and you don’t know how the family law is. You don’t know what the judges typically do.

How Can A Family Law Attorney Help?

A family law attorney needs to sit down and advise you. Where are the strengths and weaknesses of your case? Because if you come into an attorney and an attorney only tells you what you wanna hear, the attorney has actually done you a huge disservice. Yes, you may hire that attorney and you may feel like, “Oh, I’ve got a wonderful case.” But you’re not really looking at your case honestly. You’re not saying, “Hey, I’ve got some weaknesses here.” And if you understand the weaknesses of your case, it will allow you to gather additional evidence so that we can make better arguments or it will also allow you to perhaps take a slightly different angle. Sometimes you want to litigate and go for everything, and that’s great. And sometimes it’s important to understand that Arizona property law is not going to give you a hundred percent of the house or one hundred percent of all of the retirement accounts. And if you understand that upfront, you can avoid spending a lot of money on attorneys and going into court to fight something that you’re just not going to win. Or you may understand that “I need to know when I started their retirement account. When did it end? What was the community portion of this?” And when you understand all that, it will give you more information so that you can gather your evidence and we together, can go work on your case.

You also want to make sure that your attorney is being honest with you. You want to make sure that your attorney and you are on the same page- we offer a consultation at a reduced hourly rate so that our clients can feel comfortable to come down, sit down with us and understand what specifically we offer, what they need, and then we can decide if it’s a good fit for you and for us. So please give us a call and schedule a reduced price consultation, so we can sit down, go over your case, talk about it honestly and determine if we are a great fit for what you need. Thank you.

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As the best family law lawyers in Arizona we often get asked, “is it good to have an aggressive divorce lawyer?” I want to tell you about an interesting divorce consult that I had earlier this week. It was actually not much different than probably hundreds or maybe even thousands of divorce consults that I’ve had in the past, except for at one point during our conversation, the individual that I was consulting with said something to me that kind of struck a question in my mind and it’s a question that does come up every once in a while. In describing the situation that he and his spouse were going through, he said to me, “What I’m really looking for is a snake in the grass…” And I kind of chuckled and said, “A snake in the grass. It sounds to me like you want a lawyer that’s aggressive.” He said, “That’s exactly what I want.” And it kind of dawned on me that that’s something that a lot of people are looking for when they get a divorce lawyer. They want someone who’s aggressive. And I thought, “What makes an aggressive lawyer and is it good to have an aggressive lawyer?” So I kind of want to talk about the pros and cons of having an “aggressive lawyer.”

In my mind, that aggressive lawyer is someone who is really, really good at what they do and particularly is good in the courtroom. So what are some of the pros of having an aggressive lawyer? Well, usually they’re very experienced. They understand the law very, very well. They’re going to give you really good advice, and sometimes that really good advice is don’t litigate, don’t push this to court unnecessarily. There may always be good reasons to go to court in these cases, in divorce cases, but sometimes the best advice you can ever get from an attorney, especially one who I think is trying to be very up front and very honest, is you should be looking for opportunities to settle. Now, that may sound like the exact opposite of an aggressive attorney, but aggressive almost always means expensive. And in my mind, a good attorney is one who is giving you advice and helping you try to find a way to resolve your case in the quickest and least expensive way possible. Sometimes it is necessary to be aggressive. What would those times be? Well, it would be situations where the other party is being completely unreasonable. Where there might be a need to do some extensive discovery. For example, if you think someone’s hiding assets or if they’re not being cooperative, then you have to file certain motions with the court. But aggressive attorneys, snake in the grass if you will, are at least in my mind someone who might be doing a lot of unnecessary work that’s only driving your cost up.

So, when you are talking to a lawyer about your family law case, I think is very fair and reasonable to ask: “Are you aggressive?” But in my mind, an aggressive attorney is someone who is smart, someone who’s going to give you good advice and isn’t always one who is telling you to file a whole bunch of motions with the court and pushing your case to trial unless it’s absolutely necessary. As always, we welcome an opportunity for you to come down and visit with us here at the law offices of Kevin Jensen and talk about your case. We may not be snakes in the grass, but we’re seasoned attorneys who can analyze your case and give you advice on how to best approach your particular case. Thanks.

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Genesis Family Law and Divorce Lawyers is dedicated to Serving Families Throughout the Mesa Arizona area. If you are currently dealing with a divorce, it is extremely important that no time is wasted in getting the involvement of a high-quality Arizona divorce lawyer that you can trust to represent your best interests. At Genesis Family Law and Divorce Lawyers, we know just how difficult it can be to deal with the process of a divorce or any other family law-related issue. We understand just how daunting it can be and are prepared to offer up our services as reliable attorneys to help make the process easier. Regardless of whether you are looking to obtain a legal separation, if you aren’t even sure what the grounds for divorce are, or if you are looking for a peaceful uncontested divorce, you can trust in the legal experience of our firm to help.