Liaison with Feldstein Family Law Group
Most Divorce Coach services, and parenting coordinators don’t care about which law firm you sign up with. I’m different.
While I am NOT an employee of Feldstein Family Law (FFL) or an agent of theirs, I do have complete faith in Andrew Feldstein’s integrity to act in the best interests of his clients, as opposed to the interests of his firm, and I work primarily with that firm.
I have a personal and professional history with Andrew and his firm, and it was Andrew who has encouraged me to act as a divorce coach for people in the FB Ontario Self Rep group; particularly if its in conjunction with utilizing his firm in an effort to minimize costs/billings between his firm and the client.
Therefore I currently work exclusively with Andrew’s Firm. He sees first hand the wasted resources that are used by unfocused initial approaches by clients and needed a way to combat that.
I do have clients that I work with between FFLG and them to really keep their costs a fraction of what it normally would be, and this approach has had success to date. In a recent case, the judge noted that my client (the moving party) costs were almost half of the opposing side, and commented that my client's costs should have exceeded theirs.
If you are an existing client of FFLG, and want to add Lion and Mouse to the team lineup; this might be possible under the following conditions :
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Check with your counsel first, who will run it by Andrew.
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Lion and Mouse should only be engaged for the purposes of ensuring you can retain counsel for as long as possible and is required due to a risk of running out of funds prior to the conclusion of your file. FFLG wants to stay in the process with you until the end, and if this is needed to make that happen, so be it.
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Understand that Lion and Mouse is not competing for retainers with FFLG. Once the One Time Fee is paid, FFLG should get first consideration for fees moving forward. When in doubt, pay your lawyer.
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If FFLG is in agreement that partnering up makes sense, an introductory letter/email can get things into place.
How A Divorce Coach Can Help
Navigating
High Conflict
Help
There are a few areas I can help coordinate with counsel.
01
FFLG Memorandum
FFLG does offer a free 30 minute consultation for people that his firm is able to help (some restrictions like where your court house is). However Andrew has told me that often that valuable 30 minutes gets used up with content not legally relevant as unprepared clients will naturally use all that time just to identify the relevant factors in their case before they can actually get advice on a plan to move forward. I can help prep you for that meeting by preparing a Memo for FFLG outlining the areas that 30 minutes should focus on and setup for you file for success should you proceed.
02
Liaison
Should you engage FLLG in say a limited agent capacity (or any capacity for that matter); I can assist with drafting your materials to avoid much of the expensive and often frustrating back and forth with more expensive counsel. I can work directly with you, or directly with FLL on your behalf (however of course your involvement is necessary for all sign offs etc).
01
How does this all work?
Next Steps?
Getting Started
If I am not assisting both parties, and it's just you, you just have to become a client. That's the easy part.
If this is not a cooperative approach, where both parties engage me, this section would not be applicable.
02
Your Documents
I need to be read in on practically your entire file; including filings from both sides.
Ideally, if you are using Caselines, you'll add an invite to lionandmouse@icloud.com to your proceedings.
Otherwise, the documents you'll need to get to me might include :
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Continuing Record Table of Contents - OR - Electronic Document List
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Application
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Answer
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Reply
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Financial Statements (I don't need your entire financial disclosure)
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Any filed affidavits
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Any motion materials filed (responses and affidavits)
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Your most recent conference briefs
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Any reports such as OCL, CAS, s.30, etc. for any outstanding issues (if child issues are resolved I won't need these for example)
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All orders and Affidavits
03
Memoranum
After I've read your file. I'll have some questions for you. Once I have a good grasp of your file. I'll prepare a memorandum. This is the same memorandum that would be given to FFLG should they be engaged.
With that Memo in hand, we'll schedule either an in person meeting if we're in the same area, or more conveniently a video conference.
04
Feldstein Family Law Group Engagement
If you decide you want the protection of FFLG, I'll reach out to Andrew Feldstein with a synapse of your file and the type of representation and your budget.
He'll suggest the appropriate lawyer there within his firm.
I'll send out an introductory for you and the lawyer. They will have you sign a retainer agreement.
At that time, if you want me to stay on to assist with the workload and keep your costs down, FFLG will have you sign a letter saying I'm to be included in communications.
FFLG will work with you/us to divide the workload. My aim is to teach you how to create the materials so you're not paying you layer to be a note taker and secretary. FFLG will still be responsible for communications with the other side and to "sign off" and guide you in the strategy.
This will save you, hours and hours of lawyer fees, and at the end you'll come out with a firm grasp of your file and a deep understanding of the legal arguments your lawyer will utlize.