In the dark concerning family law advocacy? Start asking questions.

If you’ve got family law-related matters to address, you likely also have questions.

And those queries are not only focused upon clarification regarding concepts and processes, but also concerning the attorney you should retain to advocate on your behalf as you seek to resolve legal problems.

Indeed, the determination regarding a specific attorney to employ to promote your interests might reasonably seem to be just as replete with complexities as is the subject matter that most preoccupies you as you go through the marital dissolution process.

Getting it right as regards counsel selection is obviously an important threshold concern, given the reality — as noted by a divorce practitioner and author in a recent article — that you will need an attorney to “guide you through the legal system [and] also explain what is going on step-by-step as you go through the very confusing legal process.”

What type of attorney can best do that?

As writer Henry Gornbein asserts, an experienced one who has spent years advocating for diverse clientele across wide-ranging divorce issues and concerns.

Moreover, notes Gornbein, that lawyer should ideally specialize in family law, not simply being an attorney “who dabbles in divorce.”

There are of course other things a prospective client should be looking for, and Gornbein cites many of them. Divorcing parties are often best served by tried-and-proven litigators commanding a high comfort level in court who, notwithstanding their adversarial abilities, know that trial is often — and for good reason — “a last resort” for reaching an equitable divorce outcome.

A litigation-tested but not always quick-to-go-to-court attorney will also know that processes such as mediation can also produce optimal divorce outcomes, and in a comparatively civil and cheap fashion.

There are lots of attributes that a would-be client might reasonably identify and actively look for in a legal advocate, and proven counsel will never be averse to stepping up and directly answering questions that help an individual searching for representation make an informed choice.

Gornbein’s bottom-line advice to any party seeking to retain the right attorney is this: Fire away with every question you think is relevant, and hold off on making any decision until you feel sufficiently comfortable to do so.