Jeffrey E. Marshall

Jeffrey Marshall

Ms. L.B. (name withheld for confidentiality purposes), I am very sorry that you feel this way about your case. It is important to me to clarify my intent with your case. Over the course of working together for just under a year, you communicated your goals for resolution of this case. My goal was to work honestly and transparently with you, while at the same time doing everything in my ability to protect you in this legal matter. We did have a court date scheduled and I was fully prepared to represent you at trial. Prior to going to trial we received an offer that I felt was very close to what you had previously communicated to me that you hoped for as a resolution. My intent was absolutely not to pressure you to settle. However, it is my job to ensure you at least understand the offer, the risks of it and responding accordingly. Additionally, I wanted you to understand that not responding to an offer, especially a good offer, and then proceeding to trial came with a risk. Because this risk involved potentially losing custody of your daughter, it was my job to make sure you understood this. In custody situations, it is very common for clients at times to be clouded by emotions about the decisions they make (rightfully so) through the process, especially when it involves a difficult ex. My job is to be objective, ensure you are protected when it comes to the law and help you see through the emotional decisions. When cases go to trial, judges do not typically make their decisions solely on "bad behaviors" of a single party. Instead, they look at the whole picture to see what is best for the child. I help my clients through these situations from an impartial and realistic standpoint in an attempt to reduce (and hopefully eliminate) the risk that a judge misinterpret a client's anger and resentment towards and ex and then holds it against the client. After you refused to respond to the offer (that I felt was very close to what you previously told me you wanted), I suggested that you obtain a second opinion and fortunately you did. Upon my invitation, your new attorney came to my office and I spent a good amount of time meeting with him and helping him get up to speed on your case. I went through your file with him in detail (you may recall it consisted of many bankers boxes so this was no small task) and made sure he understood what work had been done so that he was not duplicating work, and so that he would be able to represent you to the best of his abilities. He commended me on the work I had done in preparing your case for trial. He specifically told me that he would not have commented on my trial preparation unless he was thoroughly impressed. Specifically, he repeatedly told me that the file was organized, detailed and the work was "excellent." I pride myself on the integrity I have for the work I do and truly cared about the result of your case and how it affected your family. Even after you hired a new attorney, I spent this kind of time to properly transfer your file and ensure that your new attorney was as prepared as he could be. My practice consists of litigation (trial work), arbitration and mediation of family law and family law related cases. I believe that any family law practitioner who knows what they are doing would tell you that 95% of their cases settle and that the goal is always to try to obtain a favorable settlement if possible, rather than having a complete stranger (a judge) decide your outcome. Please do not confuse this statistic with my willingness to go to trial for my clients. When all settlement possibilities are exhausted I absolutely go to trial as an advocate for my clients. I tried to communicate this to you and I apologize if it was misunderstood. I do wish you the best of luck and would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you further in person if you would like to do so.