As a Denver divorce lawyer I’ve recently come to appreciate the role that the attorney has in fashioning a fair and equitable separation agreement when the other side is not represented. The lawyer needs to walk a fine line between zealously representing the interests of the client while, at the same time, not allowing the client to be perceived as taking advantage of the fact that the other side didn’t have an attorney.

A recent case of mine involved the representation of a husband in the matter while the wife went unrepresented. The two parties were remarkably civil and friendly to one another considering that they were going through this divorce process.  It was clear that they still considered each other a friend and they more or less had an agreement worked out in principal before the husband even hired me.  Basically, the husband was going to keep the house and pay the wife a fair equalization payment for her interest of the home’s equity.  We crunched the numbers and he proposed a settlement that we believed represented an approximately one-half interest in the equity based on the current market value.

The problem was that the husband makes nearly four times as much income as the wife. The wife was adamant that she did not want to request any spousal maintenance (otherwise known as alimony) from the husband.  When we initially presented the settlement to the Judge, it was rejected because the Court was concerned that the wife may have been selling herself short, especially given that she was representing herself.  The parties were ordered to go back to mediation a second time and we were able to fashion an agreement whereby the husband paid a bit more in satisfaction of the property claim, but still didn’t have to pay any spousal maintenance.  The judge finally accepted the proposal, albeit with certain reservations.

The point that I took out of the experience was that being an effective advocate for my client in that situation didn’t necessarily mean trying to win for him at all costs; but rather, to explain to him the Judge’s perspective so that we could present a plan that would be found to be fair and not unconscionable to either side.   In other words, like the old adage goes:  you have to give a little to get a little.

Thanks for Reading.

Eduardo Ferszt, Family law attorney Aurora CO