Litigation

As much as Claire Sanderson Hanna hopes each potential client is able to resolve their divorce or other legal matters through the more cooperative and less expensive methods of mediation, collaborative law or settlement facilitation, the reality is some legal matters require litigation. The reasons for this are complicated and vary from situation to situation. The simple answer is that the other party may simply refuse to cooperate to participate in the other, less adversarial methods or you may feel that the litigation model affords the best safeguards if there are issues of violence or financial untrustworthiness involved.

Litigation requires adherence to the court’s requirements and schedules. It is a formal and rigid process that provides a critical and essential service to the community, but it is time-consuming and expensive. It is the appropriate option for a relatively small percentage of my clients. You should discuss this option with your attorney so that you are clear on the advantages and disadvantages of this process in regards to your unique legal matter.

Often even a litigated case is settled before a full trial takes place.  A frequent method to settle litigated divorces is to refer the disputed issues to Settlement Facilitation.  In a mediated or collaborative case, the goal from the beginning is to “settle the case” which means to resolve the dispute without judicial intervention to the satisfaction of both parties.  Settlement within a litigated case is typically done after there has already been an exchange of formal interrogatories and production of documents and after a preliminary type of hearing before the judge has taken place.  In other words, settlement is often not accomplished until the parties are relatively close to their trial date with the court. 

Claire Sanderson Hanna has over 18 years experience representing clients as their family lawyer at settlement facilitations.  When litigation is necessary, Claire Sanderson Hanna often works in conjunction with co-litigation counsel with Claire Sanderson Hanna focusing on the settlement aspects and the litigation co-counsel handling the in-courtroom hearings.