Video – Attorney Bill Leininger Explains Why Divorce Mediation Clients Should Use His Firm

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

There’s divorce lawyers or divorce mediators and so there’s competition. So what would you say to somebody who walks in your office? Why should they use you versus the guy down the street?

Bill Leininger – Divorce Mediation Attorney – Richmond County, NY

Well, I don’t know if the guy down the street is a divorce mediator or divorce litigator or both.

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

Well, that’s a good question, but there’s obviously divorce mediators and divorce attorneys, but you know, let’s say, obviously just divorce mediators. Why should they use you versus somebody else who advertises on the billboard on the highway?

Bill Leininger – Divorce Mediation Attorney – Richmond County, NY

Yeah, I think that the fundamental question is, would you and your spouse be better off If you two ran the show, or are you going to have two lawyers who have a very big pecuniary interest on having the crap hit the fan, okay?

Remember a simple divorce may cost $5,000 or $10,000, but if there’s many applications in court, all right, oh, you didn’t pick up the kid on time, so I left, but you shouldn’t have done that. I want you thrown in jail, I want you punished.

Well, every time they go into court, the lawyers make $5,000 or $10,000 on that motion. So do you want to have a situation where people with a great financial incentive are pulling the shots?

Or do you and your spouse… being, hopefully, intelligent people who know what’s best, especially for their kids, want to make those decisions?

And I always say, if you trust that you two can basically be fair, trust but verify, you know, financially, so that the child support will be fair, if there’s going to be alimony, the alimony will be fair, the equitable distribution will be fair, and you two will be watching out for the kids’ welfare.

And just because, let’s say, the public schools may be terrible, my daughter is a teacher… was a teacher for 22 years in Staten Island and her famous line was, and she’s an MSW social worker, and she said, I would rather become a prostitute than send my kids to the public schools in Staten Island, and I respect her opinion.

So, it depends. If the parents will say, no, no, I have a case right now, true story. One of the parties is involved in the administration of a school in Staten Island. I don’t want to get too specific. And the wife is a teacher. It’s that loud. So both of them know what’s going on, okay? And one of them is saying, no, no, no, we can’t send any of the kids to a private school. It’d be too expensive. But together, their income is about $300,000 a year. It’s not like they’re making $20,000 a year. And it’s interesting. And then the wife will say, no, no, if our kids get stuck in a terrible school, we’re not going to have them be victims. We’re going to, you know, we’ll pay for the Catholic school, the Lutheran school, or, you know, a private school, or sometimes there’ll be a good charter school, but we’re not going to let them have those crucial years of their life thrown away.

So, you ask yourself, does my husband and my wife care enough about the kids? That it’s not just all about money? He wants to do what’s right for those kids.

So, that’s the type of thing that we have to, you know, ask these people. And when you two are talking, frequently some people are only concerned about money. They couldn’t care less if the kid doesn’t learn how to read or write.

So, that’s not a person who’s really going to be really good at going to the mediation. So, it really depends.

On the other hand, you want to suck them into the litigation thing with the $10,000 or $12,000 for the child psychologist report. To go into court and read the report, that’s going to cost $3,500 to $4,500 to be cross-examined on it.

I had one case 15 years ago in New Jersey, and New Jersey, it was very easy to get psychological evaluations. If you’re lost on the custody evaluation, easy to get a second one. Well, I had a case where this couple, they had three children. Wife was a judge. Husband was an insurance executive and made good money, made $600,000 a year. So they had the money to fight. But they had to go through three custody evaluations. And then the wife got a new lawyer and they wanted to do a fourth. And my client said, Bill, I’d rather give my wife custody than put my kids through a fourth one.