Some people suppose that being represented by an aggressive lawyer can help them get a better outcome in their divorce case. There are some situations that call for aggressive client advocacy, but persistent aggressive behavior by an attorney can cause a prolonged legal battle with skyrocketing expenses.

Aggression is suitable:

- When the legal code clearly supports your arguments, and the opposing party isn’t aware of it.

- If the client wants to take a principled stand although he has been advised that he’s unlikely to prevail, and is willing to expend a lot of resources to make that argument.

- When the other side is using bullying tactics, it is acceptable to take an aggressive stance to demonstrate that intimidation will not work.

Aggression can be detrimental when the parties are making an attempt to settle and the attorney is aggressively looking for a reason to reject each offer instead of attempting to problem solve.

An illustration of this type of aggressive behavior would be during mediation when a lawyer rejects an offer and exclaims, “What a stupid offer, stop wasting everybody’s time and bring something better to the table”, rather than countering with another offer and permitting the negotiation process to move forward and increasing the likeliness of reaching a settlement.

The aggressive angle in the first example detracts from negotiations and moves the parties further away from settling. This kind of behavior sometimes increases emotions and moves everyone into a less productive state. Aggressive actions like this may ruin an otherwise easily settled case, and drag it on into an expensive and time-consuming trial that might result in a worse outcome than what was previously offered throughout mediation.

Rebecca Long Okura is a lawyer providing Utah divorce information.

categories: divorce,divorce mediation,divorce settlement,divorce lawyer,divorce attorney,family law,conflict resolution,mediation,law,legal,lawyer,attorney

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