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Hello, my name is Keith Dysart and I am a family law attorney and mediator in Santa Cruz California. One of my primary goals when helping a client is to minimize the stress and cost associated with their divorce. Considering alternatives such as mediation is essential if I am to meet that goal.

I'd like take a minute and talk about mediation, why it has become so accepted the last few years, and understand the benefits and challenges of it.

So why mediation has become so common in divorce cases?
There is a few reasons.

First Reason: In most cases, litigation just fuels the fighting while doing little to alter the final outcome. It is not that all cases are the same, but the court has seen so many divorces it is unlikely your issues very similar to yours have already been decided. A mediator or attorney can help you understand the law and find an outcome that is fair to everyone.

Second Reason. The court system continues to be overworked and underfunded. An unending caseload coupled with budget cuts has left judges with less time to resolve cases. In many cases mediation can provide a more personal and cost effective way to resolve your divorce.

What are some benefits of mediation?
Some of the benefits of mediation may include:
1. a more comfortable and convenient environment.
2. a more personal result and
3. a more cost- effective approach
First:
The court does not create the most inviting atmosphere. Standing in front of a room full of strangers with a judge asking you questions is unnerving. I am not saying mediation is easy, but sitting down in a private room with just you, your spouse and a mediator is much more comforting.

In addition scheduling is much more flexible with mediation. Trying to find a court date at 8:30 am morning that works for you, your spouse, both attorneys and the court can slow down the process. Many mediators will even go as far as scheduling sessions on weekends or evenings if necessary.

Second:
Mediation allows you to be creative and find a result that works for you and your family. The courts try hard to give everybody a fair result, but with the limited time they have they cannot understand your family as well as you. Your day to day knowledge of the people and relationships that make up your family can help find creative solutions that take into account your families specific needs.

Last:
Mediation tends to be much less expensive. It is important to realize that mediation does not lessen the workload. It takes the workload that your attorney and the court would be handling and shifts much of that work to you. A mediator's role in this is to help you handle this workload by providing you with the legal background you need. In addition a mediator will help you deal with formalities and paperwork of your divorce.

So what challenges come with mediation?

The primary challenge of mediation is managing discussions about difficult issues between people who probably do not like each other too much at the moment. This is part of what a mediator brings to the table. The mediator should be able to direct discussions by keeping everybody focused and limiting, blame, accusations and insults. These are not always easy things and require many judgment calls on the part of the mediator, but it should be little more than a bump in the road as long as both parties are open to finding a settlement.

Close
Mediation may not be perfect for every case, but I do believe that it should always be considered before moving on to more hostile and expensive methods.

Flyers

So this has been something I have been tinkering with. The space I rent my office in has 100 or so tenants and the landlord offered to allow to place a flyer in the monthly circulation. My wife did an incredible job getting together a beautiful flyer. All in the same colors as our business card and website. She really has done a great job making sure we have a very consistent professional scheme.

So the flyer went out over the weekend. I am really not expecting much from it, but it is good to introduce ourselves. I actually received call from 3 2other tenants and an e-mail from a third within the first 2 days. Another attorney called and let me know she would pop in to say hello sometime during the week. AN insurance agent called to say hello and a family law therapist sent me a great e-mail. So I will make a point of meeting all three and creating the connection.

In addition we had a number of extra flyers printed up and we will start posting them anywheres and everywhere we can. There are boards all over to post them and a few business cards to. I also got the advice from a family member to print up cheap black and white flyers for mass passing out. He actually hired an attorney for his divorce from a flyer left on his car. I think I will try this, and once I get a pamphlet put together start leaving those.

As an attorney I am trying to find creative ways to make sure people know that I exist. I need to make sure whatever I do has enough of a lasting affect that 2-6 months from now people still remember my advertisement. It is a fickle system relying on selling a service that is only needed at specific times. No impulse purchases on attorneys so I am working to make sure whatever I do is rememberable.

Formatting Documents

Part of starting my office has been sitting around trying to pre-draft forms and get familar with the judicial forms. Without knowing it I complied with a few of these formalities, but others I completely missed. I was not even aware that there were formatting requirements for documents I submitted with the court. I just happened to find them reading.

I was digging through my California Practice Guides to continue to learn new things. I was unaware of how particular the courts are concerning formats of documents filed with the court. If I had practiced prior to opening my practice I am sure I would have been shown this by a supervising attorney, but just starting out I had no idea. Here are a few requirements in California.
1. All judicial forms and pleadings filed with court or served on the other party must be on recycled paper.
2. Footers: all documents created by attorneys must have footers in at least 10 font with the name of the document.
3. Hole Punching: All documents filed must have 2 holes punched in top complying with measurement requirements.
4. Documents must be 12 font; use one font out of a list of approved fonts; on 8x11 20 pound recycled paper; 1.5 - double spaced; printed only on one side and numbered.
As far as judicial forms go many are mandatory for their purpose. Other forms are approved, so knowing the difference will let you know if you need to use a judicial form.
Nothing here is groundbreaking, but it is something I was not aware of. If I had not been reading through the California Practice guide randomly I would probably have learned these guidelines the hard way.

Credibility building Advertising

So I have been spending way too much time thinking about how to advertise and not just put my name out there. I have read about marketing ideas that have involved themes advertising that have really paid off law firms. SO my goal has been to design a consistent advertising theme that builds my reputation as well as putting my name and phone number in people's hands.

I have decided to design a family to use to create pamphlets and short videos for Youtube. It is amazing to see how Youtube videos rank on Google, so I am hoping it will help direct traffic and help my website rank. I have designed the children based on images of my wife and myself as children> I am still working on the parents, but I am sure I will come up with something.

The point of this is to allow me to explain legal points and express my understanding on the challenge of divorce to potential clients. By generating ads that allow me to build credibility I am hoping to generate more clients in the long run than just by advertising.

Advertising

This topic has been a thorn in my side. Advertising is so expensive and online advertising works on a bidding system that makes it impossible for me to compete with established attorneys. To this point I have limited my advertising to a couple classified ads and Craigslist. I have looked into Googles keyword advertising but the pay per click is so expensive for attorneys I do not have a choice but to just work my website until it searches better.

The website has been confusing. On yahoo search we are first page for Santa Cruz family law attorney and Santa Cruz divorce attorney. Somehow with Google I keep flipping between page 13 and 14. I keep working on my links and blogging to try and get rank, but it is being slow. I will be introducing a video and article portion to my website to create more material and keep changes coming. It should add a lot of extra pages of keyword heavy content and the regular changes will hopefully move us up.

March is the deadline for Yellowpage's phonebook listing so I am guessing that will be inevitable. I am not sure just generic listings are going to be effective advertising, but until I can figure out something more creative it will have to work for now. I am reading about firms who have done really great creative advertising that brought in a lot of new customers. I will have to make a point of sitting down and trying to create some original advertising methods.

I will post about what advertising proves to be effective I use some trial and error.

Starting to Meet People

So I have started my intial process of getting out to meet people and pass out business cards. I have joined two local Chamber of Commerces. I have attended one mixer which was exciting, scary and fun. It was fun to meet a few faces I see running local business. I have to admit I was surprised to see the guy from the Hardware store I visit regularly was VP of the chamber. I have another Chamber mixer tomorrow evening so I am hoping that goes as well. It is challenging walking into a place where you do not know anybody and trying to make frinds with everybody you see.

I am also going to join the PTA group for my kiddos school. To some extent I feel guilty joining now when I could have joined at any time the last few years, but if I am going to volunteer to get myuelf out there I am going to do something important to me. It has to be one of the greatest schools ever and there is a tremendous amount of parent involvement so I am hoping it helps out in the long run.

I amm also taking a pro bono case helping two non-profits locally reach an agreement. This feels good to do and it should get me in front of alot of people in the community. I think I am choosing well. I have made an effort to focus on this like my kids school and local non-profits as an avenue to promote myself.

I am sure other ideas will come up. AT the moment I cannot get past the idea of joining a softball league. I just really want to and it would probably be a great way to meet more people. If I can talk my wife into it a co-ed league would be a blast. She grew up playing baseball and if she let go enough she would have a blast.

Struggles in the Beginning

So I was warned and read to have realistic expectations the first few months. It does not make it easier to sit in the office for a few days without the phone ringing. I did not expect to have clients come running in and I knew this is what the reality of it would be, but it is hard to deal with.

I have been opened now for 23 days. I have had 2 potential clients call and actually did some work for one of them. Minor stuff but it was really good to get some work. Now I am waiting for more phone calls. Some of the excitement has settled away and now the anxiety of waiting is kicking in. My wife and I have invested what we have to get this going and I feel alot of pressure to make it start working now.

I understand this is part of starting my own firm as an attorney, but it is easy to feel a little defeated. I have my office set up and we are advertising a little and working on the website SEO. I will keep putting in the leg work and I am sure things will start to pay off. As work starts to come in I will address this issue again, but starting out this is an incredibly important issue to make peace with.