You have scheduled your Initial Consultation with one of our attorneys, what should you expect at your appointment?  Please plan to block out at least an hour and a half for this appointment. On average this is how long a consultation should last with one of our attorneys.  If you are unable to keep your appointment for any reason, please call the office to either cancel or reschedule. Cindy and Chris are happy to help you with this. Also, expect us to call the day before the appointment to confirm the time and that you have directions to our office.

When you arrive to our office either Chris or Cindy will greet you.  She will get you settled in one of our conference rooms.  Once you are seated, she will go over our Client Intake Form with you.  This form gives our office information such as addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and dates of birth.  After the intake form is complete, she will process the payment for the appointment and ask if you have brought any documents with you that you would like your attorney to review.  If you do, she will make copies of the documents for the attorney’s review.

Chris or Cindy will then bring your file to the assigned attorney, who will review your file briefly before coming in to meet with you.  During the meeting with either Ms. Frye or Ms. Bruce, they will go into greater detail of your situation and what your goals are.  After the consultation, you will receive a business card with the attorney that you have met.  If you have a question a few days after your appointment, our attorneys are happy to answer them via email at no additional charge.

At Frye Law Offices, we pride ourselves on having an amazing support staff. Clients have always told us that our staff has been professional, empathetic, and effective. From the first moment you contact our firm, you will find the knowledge, experience and personal attention at the time when you need it most. Please call us at 919.846.8807.

**Written by Christine Universal

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You have taken the first step and have reached out to Frye Law Offices, what can you expect now?   When you call in you can expect to speak with either Chris or Cindy, both are legal assistants with our firm.

The first question you can expect to be asked is your name and the name of the opposing party or any other parties involved in your situation.  We have had clients call in and not want to give us this information; this information is vital in determining if we have any conflicts of interest.

Once it is determined that there are no conflicts, the next step will be hearing about the initial details of your situation.  During your first phone call you can expect to be asked a fair number of questions about what is causing you to call our firm.  Our staff needs to be thorough and get as much information from you as possible so that your time with Katherine Frye or Lynn Bruce is as effective as possible.  Please remember that any information discussed with either of our two legal assistants will be in confidence, meaning the only person they will discuss your situation with is the attorney with whom you are scheduling an appointment.

Once the information is gathered an appointment will be set up with the Katherine or Lynn. Our staff will provide you directions and ask for a secure email address so that we can send you some initial information prior to your appointment.

At Frye Law Offices, we pride ourselves on having an amazing support staff. Clients have always told us that our staff has been professional, empathetic, and effective. From the first moment you contact our firm, you will find the knowledge, experience and personal attention at the time when you need it most. Please call us at 919.846.8807.

**Contributed by FLO Office Manager, Christine Universal

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A Connecticut judge recently ordered divorcing parties to exchange passwords for Facebook and dating websites so that attorneys can gather information for the pending litigation. The Order requiring the exchange of information did clarify that the password was to remain with the attorneys and that parties were not to post anything to the other party’s website with that password information.

I must say that this is a new step to me. I have often had clients obtain information from the other party’s Facebook or other social media source; however, I have never thought of asking the other side to turn over his or her passwords so that I could have full access to the account and account history.

Generally, when cases are in the discovery phase, which means the information finding part of litigation, parties are asked to turn over material that responds to the divorce request. For example, a party may be asked to turn over all audio recordings that he/she has of the other party. In financial cases, bank statements are often provided, not access codes for online banking! The request in this case was to turn over a different type of information, which is very interesting.

Maybe with this different type of medium (social media), Judges will take a different look at what is required to be turned over as part of the discovery process. I cannot predict the future on where social media and divorce will go, but this case is just another reason why I tell my clients that he/she should just sign off social media for the duration of litigation.

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You have taken the first step and have reached out to a domestic law firm, what can you expect now?   Depending on the size of the firm you are contacting, the voice on the other end of the phone can either be a receptionist, paralegal, legal assistant or an attorney.

The first question you can expect to be asked is your name and the name of the other person involved (spouse, girl friend, former spouse, etc) or any other parties involved in your situation.

We have had clients call in and not want to give us this information; however, this information is vital in determining if we have any conflicts that would prohibit the firm from assisting you.

Once it is determined that there are no conflicts, the next step will be getting details of your situation.  During your first phone call you can expect to be asked a good number of questions about your current situation.  The person on the other end of the phone is not being nosy; they are just doing their job.  They need to be thorough and get as much information from you as possible so that the attorney has some background on your situation prior to the first meeting.

Hopefully, the person will be interested in what you are saying and not trying to do three other tasks while on the phone with you.  Remember this first phone call is a two-way street. Do you like the person on the phone? Does this sound like the type of person you would like to speak with on a regular basis? Realistically, you could be talking to this person quite frequently, so make sure you feel comfortable with this person.

Once the information is gathered, and you feel comfortable with the person on the other end of the phone, an appointment will be set up with an attorney. The person should make sure that you understand the cost, length of time for the meeting, location of the appointment, etc. You will undoubtedly have a great deal of legal questions, but this person cannot (and should not) answer your legal questions.

At Frye Law Offices, we pride ourselves on having an amazing support staff. Clients have always told us that our staff has been professional, empathetic, and effective. From the first moment you contact our firm, you will experience the knowledge, experience and personal attention you need.

If you feel that our firm can help you, please give us a call at 919.846.8807.

**Written by FLO Office Manager, Christine Universal**

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Often we have clients walk into our office assuring us of many things as the truth, and often we believe them on the small things. Of course, when it comes to specific facts related to why they arrived in our office, we will turn a close eye, which is a result of our very nature as attorneys. But, shouldn’t we be careful about some of the “smaller” stuff too?

When clients say they are divorced, why should we believe that statement? Recently Lawyer’s Weekly ran an article about a guy who thought his first wife had obtained the divorced, so he decided to remarry . . . in another county. Later he plans to bring his “wife” back to the US and apply for citizenship for her based on wife status. Well, low and behold, wife had never really finalized that divorce, so new “wife” wasn’t wife at all.  The downside is that now he has huge set of problems, which are not going to be easy to remedy. The article is written in a manner to evoke sympathy for this guy, but really should we feel sorry for someone who doesn’t even know if he is divorced or not? Is someone’s marital status part of the “smaller” stuff?

So, how do we know for sure? For once, this answer is simple: obtain the certified divorce decree. Do not rely on what someone told you; just get the document. Every person who is divorced should retain a copy of this decree. If they do not have it, make sure they obtain a copy from the appropriate clerk of court.

A parties’ divorce has a multitude of ramifications on these individuals’ rights and obligations. In a domestic context, upon divorce both sides’ rights to equitable distribution and alimony are lost unless preserved. Divorce can change someone’s ability to inherit, your responsibility for medical expenses, your tax filing status, ability to remarry, and many more substantial rights and obligations.

It is important to know if your client is divorced or not. As you begin your representation, ask the client to bring in proof of the divorce if any steps in your representation rely on marital status or the availability of any results would change if the person were married. For once in our world, something is simple . . . just bring in the proof.

Well, maybe it’s not that simple, but I will address the proof and validity of divorces (particularly the common foreign divorce) in the next post . . . .

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The heat is upon us in Raleigh, N.C., which is a wonderful reminder that summer is here!

It is also a gentle reminder to plan your summer vacation. With summer vacation planning, you need to pull out your child custody order or your parenting agreement. Be sure to review it to see what is required for vacations. Often there is a required notice period to give the other parent. Since those notice periods can vary, it’s good to take a look at it now and plan accordingly.

If you find that you have missed the deadline for notice or that you want to plan something that would not follow the agreement you have in place, call the other parent and see if you can agree on the change. If an agreement is reached, just be sure to send an email memorializing your agreement.

If you get a call from the other parent about making a change, remember that parenting is a two-way street. You may need a favor soon . . . not to mention don’t you want your child to have a fun vacation during the summer?

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On October 29, 2009, NBI will host an advanced family law education class for attorneys, mediators, paralegals, and therapists at the Hilton North Raleigh. Katherine Frye and Lynn Bruce will teach a session entitled “Custodial Evaluations in Custody and Support Litigation”. Our firm’s attorneys will be joined by Judith Guibert, Dr. Abigail Pressel, Kathryn Schiller and Judge Debra Sasser in teaching this advanced seminar.

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