FAMILY LAW DAILY NEWS

Custody circumstances deserve consideration of legal professional | Authorized Affairs

Custody cases can be complex and often involve elements that the everyday person is not familiar with. Because of this, legal professionals strongly recommend hiring an attorney to assist in custody proceedings.

Andrew Zashin, co-managing partner at Zashin & Rich in Cleveland, weighed in on the reasons why hiring an attorney is important and how doing so can benefit a person in a custody battle.

“The well-being of a person’s children is usually dearer to a person than his or her own life,” noted Zashin, who writes a monthly law column for the Cleveland Jewish News. “In that vein, a sane person would not ordinarily trust themselves to handle their own health care issues if they were life threatening. So why would they handle their own child custody case?”

Zashin explained custody cases are too emotional and too personal to be handled by anyone other than an expert.

“Abraham Lincoln wisely said that ‘a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client,'” he pointed out.

Zashin stated that people “hear what they want to hear” and, therefore, can be susceptible to hiring attorneys who convince them that they have “the” solutions they need. He advised that people avoid hiring lawyers who promise them unrealistic outcomes.

Another mistake that people make is listening to the advice of friends and family members who have been divorced, Zashin noted.

“Why?” he asked. “Because every single case is different. The parents are different, the children are different, the lawyers involved are different, the judges and magistrates are different and the unique facts and circumstances of every case are completely different.”

Zashin recommended that people hire an attorney who they “click” with, have good chemistry with and feel like they can trust. He further advised seeking a lawyer who has experience with family law and child custody law.

“The Ohio Bar Association certifies specialists in family relations law for a reason,” Zashin stated.

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