Lawyer Family Law Divorce

A Divorce Process can lead to stress here are three helpful solutions:

2010-07-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

By obtaining either a divorce coach, child specialist, or a financial specialist it can help ease the stress you may be feeling.

A divorce coach is there to assist you with any emotional distress you are feeling.

The child specialist will concentrate exclusively on what is in the best interest of the children.

The financial specialist is the individual who deals with all the numbers and assists the parties in financial budgeting and helping them to figure out how much the property they owned jointly so that it can be divided among both sides as impartially as feasible.

Do I need to hire an Orange County divorce lawyer?

2010-05-22T16:48:00.001-07:00

If you are unsure if you need a divorce attorney, ask yourself the following before you proceed on our own with the divorce proceedings:

1. Do I comprehend the forms that I need to file in order to proceed without a lawyer?

2. Do we have children?

3. Do we have large assets, pensions, 401(K)s and/or liabilities that need to be separated?

4. Is my spouse going to contest any portions of our divorce that may necessitate Court intervention and guidance?

5. Do I have any doubts about whether I am agreeing to do something that I'm not legally required to do or waiving something that I may be legally entitled to?

If you responded yes to any of the questions above, it is in your best interests to at the very least consult with a family law divorce attorney.

The following are common characteristics of a person who does not need an attorney to assist them in a divorce:

1. The parties have no children or sizeable assets that need to be separated and/or have already divided all of their assets and liabilities;

2. The person comprehends all of the divorce documents and is perfectly capable of filing them out without the assistance of a lawyer;

3. Not in a hurry and have no specific time line that they are looking for to finalize their divorce;

4. The funds that it would take to hire a lawyer is more than the value of the assets or debts the parties are contesting;

5. Alimony or child support is not at concern.

STATE BAR TAKES ACTION AGAINST ATTORNEY LOAN MODIFICATION FRAUD

2009-07-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

San Francisco, July 15, 2009 — The State Bar of California and its Office of Chief Trial Counsel made clear today that it will aid in prosecution and will bring its strictest standards to bear against attorney participation in loan modification fraud.

“Attorney misconduct in connection with the provision of loan modification services is a significant and growing problem,” said Acting Chief Trial Counsel Russell Weiner. “It is unfortunate that any attorney would fail to adhere to the highest ethical standards in providing legal services to a vulnerable client possibly facing the loss of their home. We will aggressively investigate and vigorously prosecute these attorneys.”

Following an increasing number of complaints against attorneys involved in the loan modification business, the bar created a special team to deal only with those complaints. The team, made up of seasoned investigators and prosecutors, is currently investigating hundreds of current consumer complaints, has evidence there are many more and is intent on prosecuting attorneys who take advantage of distressed homeowners.

Just within the last few days, State Bar prosecutors took steps to shut down the operations of two attorneys involved in loan modification misconduct, marking the third such action in the bar’s aggressive pursuit of lawyers who wrongly take advantage of vulnerable homeowners.

State Bar prosecutors filed an application against Nabile J. Anz (Bar No. 183324) who ran the Federal Loan Modification Law Center of Irvine to have Anz enrolled involuntarily inactive. Bar prosecutors charged that Anz, 44, abandoned clients who retained Federal Loan Modification by failing to perform on behalf of those clients, closing Federal Loan Modification without any notice and failing to return unearned fees. The bar is seeking to prevent Anz, against whom 34 complaints have been lodged with the bar, from continuing to practice law.

On Feb. 11, State Bar prosecutors obtained a Superior Court order effectively shutting down the Sherman Oaks, San Diego and Riverside law offices of Mitchell Roth (Bar No. 77962). Roth, 58, had expanded his practice to primarily represent homeowners facing foreclosure that were referred to his office by a company doing business as United First, which was not a law firm. Through his attorney, Paul J. Virgo, Roth consented to the Superior Court order. On May 29, State Bar prosecutors obtained and filed Roth’s Resignation with Charges Pending with the State Bar Court. At that time, the bar had approximately 93 open investigations on consumer complaints regarding Roth. Roth had been enrolled as an inactive member of the State Bar and is ineligible to practice law pending a Supreme Court Order accepting his resignation.

On July 7, State Bar prosecutors filed the first Notice of Disciplinary Charges against attorney Sean Rutledge (Bar No. 255938) of Irvine. Rutledge, 34, is charged with seven counts of violating the Rules of Professional Conduct, including failing to perform on behalf of a loan modification client, failing to refund that client’s unearned fees, moral turpitude and forming a partnership with a non-lawyer.

The State Bar will continue to take every step to see to it that any attorney who engages loan modification fraud will no longer be permitted to practice law, and will cooperate with prosecutors in their pursuit of such criminal conduct.

Founded in 1927 by the state legislature, the State Bar of California is an administrative arm of the California Supreme Court, serving the public and seeking to improve the justice system for more than 80 years. All lawyers practicing law in California must be members of the State Bar. By July 2009, membership reached more than 222,000.