Video – Divorce Mediation Attorney Bill Leininger Explains How Contentious Lawyers May Harm Divorce Proceedings

Bill Leininger – Divorce Mediation Attorney – Staten Island, NY and Sarasota FL

I have to say, divorce lawyers in the past, and many still to the present, have a habit of putting salt on the wounds. And their theory is, the more crap I cause, the more hatred I cause, the bigger my bill. And I never forget, I had a deposition about 10 years ago, and it was a very tough, aggressive attorney that I had known for 20 years. And he said out loud during the deposition, “Murray, now I know what you mean. Your wife is the ugliest woman I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”

Now think about that. I had to stand up. I had to say, “Bob, make another comment like that, I’m throwing you and your client out of my office and I’m getting a protective order from the judge tomorrow.” You see, so a lawyer like that, the only reason someone would do that is to stir up the case. They can run into court on two or three more motions, every motion and another two, three, $4,000.

It’s really sickening. You see things that you just couldn’t believe. I had a case where one lawyer, I called him and I said, “Hey, isn’t it time we settled this case for God’s sakes? We’ve been dragging on for a year.” And the lawyer’s response was, “Bill, we have to wait until September.” And I said, “Why September?” “Because the deck on my house in the Hamptons on Long Island is being built and it’s $22,000, pay that unless I keep my cases going.”

Now these are true stories. And while you can just go tut, tut, tut, how could someone be so unethical? That’s the reality for some lawyers, thankfully, not all the lawyers. So you want to avoid getting involved in that nastiness, because it only takes one lawyer to stir it up, because the other lawyer then has to do what I had to do when I stood up, and I have to show my client no one’s going to push me around.

You see how it gets into a very unhealthy situation. Well, a lot of people have seen that in their own parents’ divorces, or have friends have gone through it, and they’ll say, “Oh, two of my friends told me they went to divorce mediation, and it was the best way to do it.” So you see there’s different ways that people approach divorce, what they’re looking for.