MATRIMONIAL & FAMILY LAW

As part of our matrimonial and family law practice, the Law Offices of Steinberg & Early-Hubelbank PLLC is known for bringing excellence, as well as experience, to assist you in all facets of this area of the law. Our services include representation of individuals in preparing pre-nuptial/post-nuptial agreements, separation agreements, contested and uncontested divorces, adoptions, contested custody proceedings, contested visitation agreements and support matters. When a prospective client comes to our office needing representation in one of the aforementioned areas, the focus of the consultation is on process. That is, there are three processes available to clients that they can use to resolve their matrimonial or family law issues. These areas involve and include litigation, mediation and collaboration.

Unfortunately, some personalities are such that one can neither negotiate nor reason with an individual. When we are representing someone who has a spouse or partner that is of this mind set, we may guide this client towards proceedings in a litigated setting and allowing a judge to decide the outcome. While it is the firm's philosophy that parties will ultimately be happiest when they get to control the outcome, our family lawyers are also tenacious litigators who will vigorously advocate for our client's rights when this process has been selected.

Both principals of the Firm are trained and experienced mediators. Being both mediators and litigators permits the Firm to offer two types of service for those clients wanting to proceed in a mediated setting. That is, acting as a neutral-mediator between parties; or assisting a person as an advisor in connection with a mediation proceeding. While we encourage people to consider mediation as an alternative to litigation, it is important that a person enters the mediation process informed about the law; knowledgeable about the issues that need to be resolved in mediation; and having identified individual goals and goals that will serve the family. In acting as your advisor, the Law Offices of Steinberg & Early-Hubelbank PLLC can facilitate your thinking about these matters in a way that a neutral-mediator cannot because mediation is driven by the parties to the mediation. We have found that clients who enter the mediation process, with an advisor, tend to be more likely to have a lasting and satisfactory agreement when the mediation process is complete.

Collaborative practice can best be described as an interest-based negotiation that occurs between the parties. This process is best suited for those who would like to proceed in mediation, who want representation in that process and who want to create an all-inclusive plan for how they will proceed as they enter the next phase of their life. The collaborative process can be the method of choice to accomplish many things, i.e. in preparing a pre/post-nuptial agreement; to dissolve a marriage; to create a domestic partnership agreement; and to resolve disputes centered on custody or visitation during a divorce. In the collaborative process, the individuals will be informed as to the law concerning each issue; however, the law may or may not be the standard that the parties choose to use to resolve issues between them. As part of the collaborative process, our family lawyers work with a team of health care professionals and financial neutrals. The health care professionals are psychologists that are often able to identify impediments to the process moving forward, and/or raise certain emotional concerns that need to be addressed that often the clients themselves are unaware of. The financial neutrals assist the parties in analyzing current spending and saving practices and preparing future budgets for the two new households that will need to be supported. In short, the financial neutral will often create a plan for how everyone can continue to live now that there are two households to support. In resolving all family-related disputes in the collaborative model, the parties are most often able to achieve results that accomplish everyone's goals that may, at first, appear to be mutually exclusive. However, this most often not the case, and in the collaborative process, the clients will often came to recognize this.