When you walk into a Divorce and Family law firm for the first time, you never know what type or attorney you will meet. Questions like, What's their win/success rate, how aggressive are they, will they advocate for me.... all those questions are spinning around. When it come to a Divorce -you want out, when it comes to your kids -you want to keep them part of your life and have as much time as possible, if not custody. Emotions play a large part in the initial stages...
I'll start this Review by generally disclaiming, I'm a male, was being divorced by a bitter ex who wanted to take every bit of money/life from me and keep me away from my son. My case was extremly complex: Grounds of adultry, extensive marital assets, extensive Debt, child from relationship, rental asset matters, ex who wanted to take no debt but all the assets and prevent me from having anymore time with my son than the Va state minimum of every other weekend, and who refused to talk directly with me, but only through a lawyer. Not to mention she wanted a TON of money for a LONG time. My Ex made this nasty and and more difficult than it needed to be.
When I first walked in a meet Sarah, she listened, asked what I wanted to see as an outcome and most importantly, she genuinally cared about me as a client. As the case progresseed, their were clear early warning signs the case was going to very adversarial. I wasn't worried, Sarah was up for the challenge!
Sarah is not just a Lawyer, but an aggressive DIvorce and Child Custody Litigator (yes there is a difference) for her clients. She is extremely detail oriented, client focused, always responsive by email, and mine ranked in the thousands, and by phone. I never had a problem contacting her even late at night via email, or her being on top of every facet of my difficult case. Sarah will be very direct on where you stand, recommending how to proceed and the reality of the case. This is what you want from an attorney, No BS and the Bottom Line Up Front.
That said, Sarah also envelopes herself with a talented paraleggal, Kim Cross, who was always there for questions, comment and worked tirelessly on my case. As my case winded down to settlement and while visting the office, I realized Kim managed and conducted factual legal research, prepare documents for legal transactions, draft pleadings and discovery notices, interview clients and witnesses, and assist at closing of my case. There were boxes and boxes.... and BOXES of documents and Kim knew almost everyone of them.
Yes, this review is lengthly, but I wanted to make sure I convered key points. My cases, which Sarah advocated, defended and agured for me, ended up with no adultry (one year seperation), all the real estate, 50/50 custody of my son, which I believe I could have gotten more but my son needs his Mom too, shorter duration of spousal support at a reasonable amount and most of all, my life and sanity!
In closing, weather you are the defendant, as in my case, or a plaintiff, You can rest assured that Sarah knows the PWC legal system, is an aggressive arguement Litigator, and will represent you to the fullest of her abilitiy. Sarah was right there with me through every step and guiding me legally, and sometimes acting as a counsolor I will always keep Sarah as the first person I will contact if I need any legal advice. I can humbly say, Thank you Sarah!
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