Herlihy Family Law
Alison Herlihy is a dedicated family law attorney with roots in Mobile, Alabama.
Herlihy Family Law
EP #2: What to Expect When Calling Herlihy Family Law
Understanding the intricacies of your first call to a family law attorney can help ease the stress associated with legal challenges. This episode provides valuable insights into what to expect, emphasizing the significance of confidentiality, preparation, and the consultation process.
Let’s navigate your family law needs together. Reach out to our office to schedule your consultation today by visiting herlihyfamilylaw.com!
Welcome to the Herlihy Family Law Podcast, your trusted source for expert insights on navigating family law matters with clarity and care. Whether you're tackling tough decisions or seeking guidance for your family's future, we're here to help. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome back listeners. Charlie McDermott, producer, co-host of the show, here with the one and only Allison Herlihy. Allison, how are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm great. How are you?
Speaker 2:Oh, doing terrific, yeah, having a good beginning of 2025.
Speaker 3:We're off to a busy start.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, things are rocking Well. That's what we love to hear and I think tied into that is what we're going to talk about today and just make life easier for your clients to be, and just talk about what to expect when because you're dealing with folks who are doing this for the first time and their situation could already be kind of wonky Right for the first time and their situation could already be kind of wonky right and then they call the office and they get asked questions and things like that. So I love the fact that we're going to walk everyone through this. So what to expect when you first call Herlihy Family Law, how does that sound? Allison, you ready to tackle that?
Speaker 2:Sounds great All right ready to tackle. That Sounds great, All right. So I would imagine that when someone calls, they're kind of looking for legal advice and you're not answering the phone. You have an awesome team and they're maybe do you get that a lot that the caller is asking your intake person legal questions and probably they just don't know any better.
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, you know, our phone is answered by somebody from our intake team. It's not a call center or anything like that. I mean, they work for us, so they know exactly what we do and how we operate.
Speaker 3:But yeah, a lot of times clients call or prospective clients, I guess and they want to be able to just kind of like run over the situation with whoever happens to be answering the phone and then have somebody go ahead and tell them what they need to do. And unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Our intake staff is not able to do that because they're not lawyers, so that means they can't give you legal advice. They don't have the education or training to do that and in fact, a lot of people may not know this. It's actually a crime for people who aren't lawyers to practice law, so that's why that's not allowed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I would imagine in this hurry hurry world that it's yeah, like you said, people just just want tell me what to do. I want to know in as probably little time as possible what those directions are. So then you probably have folks who go to the website. Maybe it's two in the morning and they go. Well, obviously no one's going to be there and I really want to get things moving forward. Fill out the form on the website, then what happens?
Speaker 3:So we have a form on our website with a button that says request a consultation that you can click and you have to fill out really basic information like what is your name, what's the opposing party's name, where you're located and what type of case this is essentially is what you have to fill out, and sometimes we have prospective clients who don't even want to provide that information. But there's a reason that we ask for all those things, and the reasons are we only do family law cases, so you know if you need a criminal lawyer or a lawyer to represent you in a car wreck or a real estate they dispute, that's not what we do here, so that's what type of case it is. We also only practice in Mobile and Baldwin County, alabama. We don't practice in other counties or other states. And then, thirdly, we have to have the other party's name, because we have to make sure we don't have a conflict before we talk to you about your case.
Speaker 3:Um, believe it or not, especially in the world of divorce law, it's a pretty common phenomenon, especially in um a community like ours that isn't a huge big city where, um, both of the spouses will be rushing to call the same divorce lawyer. And obviously, if we've already met with your spouse and gotten confidential information from them, we can't talk to you too, because that would be a conflict of interest. It would be unethical, and we strive to make sure that we're always maintaining the highest ethical standards here.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I hadn't even thought of that. That's a really good point, boy. That would be awkward. So why can't? And just just another question you probably get on a regular basis why can't someone else schedule the appointment on my behalf?
Speaker 3:That's a really good question and it's one we get all the time and there's there's a couple of reasons for that. So I'll give you just sort of a made up scenario as an example of why it's a problem. Say, we have a man call the office and tell us he wants to make an appointment on behalf of his daughter who's getting divorced. We don't have any way of knowing on a first phone call that that is actually the prospective client's father. It could be her husband who's trying to sneakily get information on whether she's come to see us or what her plans are. So there's one reason.
Speaker 3:And then, just generally, because of confidentiality, the client is the client. You know all the clients, or most of the clients, have family members and friends who feel very invested and concerned with what's going on with them. Understandably, but it's the client's protected information. So we can't share with your parents or your best friend or your sister or brother or whoever, when you have an appointment with us, what you're doing or anything the appointment and that can be done by calling or via the website. You don't have to call if you're in a situation where it's not safe or not possible for you to call during business hours.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, that's great. How about can I bring someone to the appointment with me?
Speaker 3:We do not allow that at our office and a big reason for that also has to do with confidentiality, and a big reason for that also has to do with confidentiality. So most people have heard of attorney-client privilege and that means that when you have a confidential conversation with your lawyer, it's privilege. So that means no one can share what was discussed in that meeting, absent some emergency exceptions. However, there's no privilege if someone else is in the meeting. So if you bring your spouse or your friend or your mom or dad or whoever, and your lawyer and you and that family member or friend are in the meeting, that means the conversation is not privileged and not confidential. And what that can mean down the road is if you get to trial for your divorce case in six months or 12 months from now and you or that person testify in court, you can be made to testify about what you discussed with your attorney at that meeting, which is a bad idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of people are unaware of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and all of that either. Wow, this is good stuff. Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of people are unaware of that. Yeah, yeah and all of that, either. Wow, this is good stuff. Okay, so you charge a consultation fee for that initial session. Why? Why is there a consultation fee?
Speaker 3:The reason there's a consultation fee is because with our consultations at our office, you get up to 60 minutes of legal advice with an attorney. So this isn't like a 50 minute 15 minute phone call with a paralegal or office staff. You're paying for legal advice. It costs money, so that's why there's a fee.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. How about? Why do you need to know my name and the opposing party's name before I can even book an appointment?
Speaker 3:We touched on that a little bit earlier. We touched on that a little bit earlier. It's because we have a rigorous conflict check process here to make absolutely sure that we're not meeting with or talking with anybody we shouldn't. If we consulted with your wife two years ago, we can't talk to you about getting divorced from her and so before we can, just we can't. That's why we can't automatically schedule an appointment when someone inquires, because we have to do that check process first.
Speaker 3:OK, ok, and does that apply even if it was a different facet of the law that you had that relationship with. You know potentially that spouse, let's say two years ago. Well, that can get really fact specific depending on the situation, so I mean typically the rule is, if it's an unrelated matter then it's not necessarily a conflict. But that would it would really depend on the facts of the specific situation.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, all right, and this this probably kind of speaks to what we talked about earlier, with people calling and just saying, hey, just give me the directions, why do I have to?
Speaker 3:provide so much information prior to my consultation.
Speaker 3:Well, anytime a client books a consultation with us for a new matter, we ask them to fill out a client information sheet.
Speaker 3:If it's a divorce, for instance, we're going to ask for basic demographic information about you and your spouse, any children that are involved.
Speaker 3:We're also going to ask for general information about your incomes, your assets, your debts, your real estate, and the reason for all that is. It gives us a big picture idea of what all the issues are that need to be addressed. And if you can do your absolute best to fill out that paperwork ahead of time for us and it doesn't have to be perfect, they can be approximate numbers and things of that nature but if you can do your best to fill that out for us ahead of time, then we don't have to spend time in your hour consultation asking you the questions. If you can go ahead and tell us you know we have a house, this is what we owe on our mortgage, then you don't have to spend your legal advice time with a lawyer asking you those questions If you don't know the information or you don't have access to it, which does happen sometimes, especially because sometimes we see situations where one spouse kind of controls all the finances, that's okay. I mean, you just fill it out as best you can and we'll go from there.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, but that's a good point.
Speaker 3:We really can't give people good advice if we don't know what needs to be addressed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I'm saying that that's a good point, that the more information you have ahead of time you can really make further, you know, cover more ground during the consultation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:All right, so I provide you all my confidential information. Is it safe?
Speaker 3:Yes, it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is. We keep everything confidential. Even if you don't hire us to represent you attorneys and our staff, we're still bound by confidentiality, so nobody's going to be that information is not going to be shared with anyone. One note of caution, though when people get divorced, a lot of times you know you may find that your spouse starts checking your emails, going through your phone, looking at your computer, that kind of thing, and so when we send you things via email that you know you need to fill out, you need to make sure that email is safe. So you might need to change your password, or you might even need to make a new email that's just to communicate with your lawyer wow, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, um, how about can my spouse find out that I had a consultation with you?
Speaker 3:so that's also confidential. Um, we're not going to tell anyone that you came in for a console. Um, however, if you came in for a consult, however, if you come in for a consultation and then the next week your spouse calls and tries to schedule an appointment for a consultation, what they will be told is that we have a conflict. So they may surmise from that what the reason is. But, you know? They're not going to be told that we saw you or when or anything like that. That's confidential information.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, elton, anything else that we should cover or anyone thinking about reaching out that they should consider?
Speaker 3:You know, I think this sounds kind of basic, but I think it's a great idea to bring something to write on when you come to your appointment, because you're going through a stressful time and this is a lot of information. So it's always a good idea to take a few notes, because you might find that you know you walk out and you can't even remember what we talked about about. So it doesn't have to be. You know, if you don't like to handwrite, you can use your notes app on your phone or your laptop or however you like to do it. But again, just make sure that those electronics are secure, because you don't want that information to be accessed by the other party. I also think it's a great idea I love it when clients bring in lists of questions that they've thought of, that they want to talk about.
Speaker 2:OK, OK. What are some of the top questions that you would get if you were to advise someone preparing for a meeting with their attorney? Is there anything kind of must ask questions that come to mind?
Speaker 3:We often get questions about how to handle paying bills right now, how to handle visitation issues with children and things of that nature. It's sort of like what do I do right now until we get into court or what's going to happen as soon as we file.
Speaker 3:And of course, everyone has questions about, like am I at risk for having to pay alimony, am I eligible to get alimony, what does child support look like? I mean, these are questions we're going to know to talk to you about anyway, obviously, but if you have specific questions that you've thought of, it's great to write them down, because all the big picture, general questions of course we're going to talk about, but you may have something really specific. I mean, like, we've had clients who are really passionate about their dogs or other family pets and working out like a visitation schedule for pets is an important issue, but I'm not going to presume that's an important issue unless you bring it up. So if you have, if you have a specific issue or need like that, I think it's a great idea to jot down some points or questions that you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great, great advice, allison. Well, thank you for sharing all that. Viewers, I want to remind you that you can reach out to Allison and her team Website is Herlihy H-E-R-L-I-H-Y, familylawcom and 215, let's go with the area code 251-277-5356. And Allison. Any final comments?
Speaker 3:before we end this episode. That's it. I mean, you know, when you're ready, we're ready, we're always here and ready to help.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, super, all right. Well, we'll see you in the next episode real soon, allison.
Speaker 1:Sounds great, thank you for tuning in to the Hurley Family Law Podcast. Remember you don't have to face family law challenges alone. No-transcript.