Clients always want to know the duration and the price of an Oregon divorce. Unfortunately, this is tough to answer without consulting on the case, although a widespread question.

Lawyers charge on an hourly basis, meaning the price of your divorce is related to the amount of time your lawyer spends working on the matter. There are also some court costs associated with the filing of a divorce, or other family law matters, in the state of Oregon. As a general rule, the higher the number of issues that are in dispute in your circumstance, the higher the fees. This is simply because the attorney will need to spend more time working on your matter.

Couples that can solve all issues may be able to do so without the need of a lawyer. Or, they may simply use a lawyer to draft appropriate paperwork. However, if a divorce goes to trial or has multiple hearings in court, the costs will grow accordingly. Because going to court is comparatively expensive, most cases settle without going to trial.

The length of the divorce also depends on whether the case goes to trial. A complete divorce could be finished as little as two weeks (or even less!) if the parties have agreed on most of the matters and only require the drafting of a judgment. However, when the matter involves court time, the schedule is often at the mercy of the court, which can be lengthy given the court's caseload. While most contested cases resolve within nine months, outlier cases can last more than a year.

Let us evaluate your case at a flat-fee initial consultation. We will attempt to give you a ballpark assessment of how much your matter would cost at every step and discuss the specifics of your case, which could make it more or less costly.

Q: What does a family law lawyer do? What is "Oregon family law?"

A: “Oregon Family law” is an umbrella term that refers to the practice of law that involves common domestic and family issues. While it is often associated with Oregon divorce, "family law" covers far more. Common family law issues include child custody, parenting time (visitation), step-parent adoptions, spousal support, child support, restraining orders and stalking orders, prenuptial agreement, grandparent rights, and far more.

Modern families come in all sizes and arrangments, and the term "family law" simply refers to the practice of law that helps those families within the Oregon court system.

Is it worth getting a divorce lawyer?

This question is standard, though completely subjective and fact-specific. It is certainly possible for people to do divorces independently, and the court even provides paperwork to the public to do so. However, unfamiliarity with legal forms can confuse the inexperienced, and mistakes can result in more considerable legal fees in the future to correct the errors.

When there are more complex issues involving children, custody, and real property or more extensive assets, getting the expert legal opinion from an experienced Oregon divorce lawyer is almost certainly a good idea.

Overview of Pacific Family Law Firm divorce and family law services.

Family law cases commonly have allegations or components of domestic violence, which is why family law lawyers routinely handle restraining order matters. Additionally, criminal defense attorneys also commonly help clients with restraining order cases, as domestic violence may have associated criminal charges associated.

Pacific Family Law Firm is a Portland, Oregon based firm of attorneys practicing in all areas of Oregon family law. We handle divorce and a full range of other family law-related issues, including child custody matters.

Divorce and family law cases can be some of the most emotionally charged and complex legal proceedings a person can go through. In these cases, evidence can play a crucial role in determining the outcome. One type of evidence that has become increasingly important in recent years is phone evidence. This can encompass everything from text messages and call logs to photos, videos, and voice recordings. In this blog post, we'll explore why phone evidence is so important in divorce and family law cases and what steps you can take to collect and preserve it.

Why is Phone Evidence Important?

Phone evidence can provide a wealth of information about a person's behavior and activities. In a divorce or family law case, this information can be used to prove or disprove allegations of infidelity, abuse, or other forms of misconduct. For example, text messages can provide a record of communication between two people, including the content of their conversations, the time and date of the messages, and any attachments that may have been sent. Call logs can show who a person was communicating with, how often, and for how long. Photos and videos can provide visual evidence of a person's behavior, and voice recordings can capture the tone and content of a conversation.

Phone evidence can also be used to support or refute claims about a person's financial or business dealings. For example, text messages or emails can show evidence of transactions or negotiations related to finances, property, or investments. Call logs can reveal the frequency of communication between a person and their financial advisors, business partners, or creditors. Photos and videos can show evidence of luxury items or trips, which can be relevant in cases involving alimony or division of property.

Collecting and Preserving Phone Evidence

If you are involved in a divorce or family law case, it's important to take steps to collect and preserve phone evidence. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Make a backup of your phone data: The first step in collecting phone evidence is to make a backup of your phone data. This will ensure that you have a complete record of all your text messages, call logs, photos, videos, and other types of data. You can make a backup using iTunes or a similar program, or by using a cloud-based service like iCloud.

Print out or save copies of important documents: If you have important text messages, emails, or other types of phone evidence, it's important to print out or save copies of these documents. This will help ensure that the evidence is preserved in the event that your phone is lost, damaged, or deleted.

Be careful about deleting data: In a divorce or family law case, it's important to be careful about deleting data from your phone. Deleting data can be seen as evidence of tampering, which can hurt your credibility in court. If you need to delete data for privacy reasons, be sure to make a backup first.

Hire a professional: If you're not comfortable collecting and preserving phone evidence yourself, you may want to consider hiring a professional. A professional can help you collect, preserve, and analyze phone evidence in a way that is admissible in court.

The Bottom Line

Phone evidence can be a valuable tool in divorce and family law cases, but it's important to collect and preserve it in a way that is admissible in court. By taking the steps outlined above, you can help ensure that your phone evidence is available and reliable when you need it. If you're involved in a divorce or family law case, be sure to talk to an attorney about the best ways to collect and preserve phone evidence and how it can be used

Background of Oregon Child Custody

Child custody is one of the most contentiously and contested issues in Oregon family law cases. Misconceptions about what "custody" actually means tend to meld with advice from well-meaning friends and family and with conflicting information from web sources that might not even reflect Oregon law.

What is Oregon Custody?

Legal "custody" of a child in Oregon is not nearly as sweeping a status as many tend to believe. It is not a "super parent" status that allows a custodial parent to make unilateral moves for the child that involve relocation or schedule changes. In short, legal custody refers to decision making authority on three significant issues: 1. Education - for instance, if there is a dispute regarding which of two available public schools a child would attend, the custodial parent would have the final "tie-breaking" vote. 2. Healthcare - in non-emergency circumstances, the custodial parent may determine major medical questions, like selecting which primary care pediatrician the child uses. 3. Theological training - again, for example, this would entail determining as to whether a child went to a religious school or a public school. (Note that this custodial decision says nothing about the who would pay for a private religious school.)

Unpacking the Two Types of Oregon Child Custody

There are two separate types of custody in Oregon: full legal custody and joint custody. Full custody is where one parent has the entire "tie-breaking" decision making authority, as referenced above. In joint legal custody, neither parent has any more power than the other; all determinations as to primary education, healthcare, and religious training must be by agreement of the parties. Joint custody can only come about by agreement of the parties. The court cannot force it.

By contrast, sole ("full") legal custody, if not agreed to, must be decided on by the court. When doing this, the court must take the child's best interest or children into account and apply factors as prescribed by Oregon law. In determining custody, Oregon law specifies what factors the court must evaluate and consider when deciding who should be the sole custodial parent at ORS 107.137: - a) The emotional ties between the child and other family members; - (b) The interest of the parties in and attitude toward the child; - (c) The desirability of continuing an existing relationship; - (d) The abuse of one parent by the other; - (e) The preference for the primary caregiver of the child, if the caregiver is deemed fit by the court; and - (f) The willingness and ability of each parent to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing relationship between the other parent and the child. However, the court may not consider such willingness and ability if one parent shows that the other parent has sexually assaulted or engaged in a pattern of behavior of abuse against the parent or a child and that a continuing relationship with the other parent will endanger the health or safety of either parent or the child.

When the parties cannot agree on joint custody, the court has no option but to decide on one parent to be awarded sole custody by applying these factors. If a case goes to trial, a court will often recite the statutory factors they considered when making their ruling and awarding custody. However, not all cases go to trial. Most do not. If parties agree on a custody arrangement, without the need for a judge to weigh the custody factors, the court will honor that decision in any final judgment. Parties can come about an agreement by themselves, with the help of attorneys, or even through a mediated settlement.

Changing Oregon Custody

Once custody is decided, or agreed-to for one parent, changing custody is substantially harder than establishing it. The court requires a "substantial and unanticipated change in circumstances," generally, which are to the detriment of a child.

Get Legal Help From Custody Law Experts

Custody issues are tricky and require knowledge of the law to present the relevant evidence in a contested case. If you need help with your Oregon custody case, contact an experienced Oregon custody lawyer at brittle.law to set up a consultation.

Watch for the common mistakes in Oregon divorces

If you’re contemplating a divorce, there’s no doubt that it’s a difficult time. Divorce fraught with charged emotion that may be unfamiliar. Even if you initiate the divorce, it’s still complicated. Divorce spawns big emotion, and even well-meaning parents make mistakes without thinking about the ramifications of their actions. To ensure a smooth process, we have compiled a list of common pitfalls to avoid doing during a divorce.

Using the Children as Weapons

This unfortunate practice, while universally counseled against, still creeps into divorce negotiations. People will tie parenting time and custody issues to matters of property division and finances. For example, “if you agree to X amount of spousal support, I will allow joint custody.” Although it is rarely so overt, it is nonetheless prevalent in more subtle ways. Don’t do it. Period. Courts penalize parents who prioritize financial issues over the best interest of children. Your children are not leveraged for anything. Your parenting time and custody matter must always place their best interest first.

Trash-Talking Your Ex

Negative talk about ex-spouses is a common problem, and you may not even realize you are doing it. As an ironclad rule: do not disparage your ex-spouse to your children or in front of your children. Children take these things to heart. Even if the allegations and statements are true, children don’t need to hear negative thoughts about their parents. Your children are 50% of the ex-spouse you are disparaging, so by insulting your ex; you are disparaging your children in some respect.

Allowing Emotion to Control Your Actions

It is said that during a divorce, people behave the equivalent of having temporarily lost 20 IQ points. Whether this is the case, it’s undeniable that thinking is more difficult when you are overwhelmed by a flood of other emotions. Intense hurt, anger, fear, and other emotion can cause poor judgment if you let them. Having a dispassionate sounding board, like an experienced attorney, counselor, or therapist, can help keep your worst impulses under control.

Everything You Do Might Affect Your Children

Whether your children are infants, teens, or even adults with their children, your divorce is going to impact them. Hiding the divorce from children is rarely a viable option. However, children also don’t need to know the gritty details of the divorce either. Here, it is an excellent idea to seek the guidance of a counselor or therapist with experience with children and divorce to determining the most age-appropriate language to use to explain the circumstances. A teenager will require far more information than a toddler, so tailoring your communication to each child is a must.

Obscuring Financial Information

Don’t lie to the court; this is always the case. Often people will try and frame their finances when divorcing to make the situation appear either better or worse for court. Should you wind up in court, savvy judges generally figure out the truth. Obscuring facts simply damages your credibility. Ignore well-meaning friends and family who might focus on the horrors of spousal and child support. Listen to your attorney instead and follow their direction. They know the law in your state.

Focusing on the Past

With few exceptions, legally, it doesn’t matter why you are getting a divorce. In the unfortunate circumstances that involve abuse or danger to yourself or the children, specific facts might be relevant to discuss with your lawyer. Otherwise, family law judges don’t evaluate which person is morally right or wrong or why the divorce is occurring. They are there to divide assets and debts and create a new future for your children. Leave that in the past. The grievances and emotional hurt from the marriage are better left to your counselor or therapist, as discussion in court simply muddies the issues the judge is required to decide.

Refusing to Compromise

Don’t enter negotiations unwilling to make any concessions. Sometimes it is tempting to “stand your ground” and decide that you aren’t willing to give an inch. If that’s the case, going into a negotiation likely will not yield anything except frustration. If you can’t negotiate and reach an agreement on your own, the only person who will be able to make decisions for you is the judge. In that case, you will end up having compromise made for you, often in less desirable ways. If you are going to enter negotiations, do it in good faith.

Not Getting an Experienced Oregon Divorce Lawyer

Abraham Lincoln famously said, “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” The fact is that all but least contentious divorces have emotional issues that can impact your judgment amid a divorce. Even if you believe you are handling the circumstances will, hindsight will likely prove that some decisions were made without the clarity of dispassionate advice. Further, there is no substitute for knowing the law. Even if you have facts on your side, unless you know how to frame and present those in the context of Oregon law, you may not get the benefit of those factual advantages.

Placing Too Much Faith in the Advice of Family and Friends

It’s human nature to rely on the people closest to us during a divorce. Friends, family, and even acquaintances all seem to suddenly have opinions, advice, and experiences to share with you. The problem here is twofold. First, unless those family and friends are experienced Oregon divorce lawyers, they don’t know how to interpret the facts of your case correctly. Secondly, those family and friends, though well-meaning, are often aligning with you and telling you information you want to hear instead of providing objective legal analysis rooted in Oregon family law.

Not Recognizing Room for Improvement

Nobody is perfect; we all make errors along the way. If you are reading this list and realize you have already made some of the mistakes listed, it’s ok. You can make changes. What is important is recognizing the room to improve and find a way to change bad habits. Divorce is a process, and it’s a learning experience. Give yourself some breathing room and slack for making errors. It’s how you adapt to your situation and find space for self-improvement over past mistakes that ultimately will result in more peace for your family.

In Oregon, restraining orders themselves cost nothing to file, and the sheriff will serve them on the other party without cost to you. Should you choose for some reason to use a private process server instead of law enforcement to serve papers on the other party, that company or person will charge a fee like any other business.

Divorce is never easy, but it can be especially difficult in Oregon, where the process can be complex and legally challenging. If you're considering a divorce in the Beaver State, it's essential to understand your rights and obligations under state law to make informed decisions about how best to proceed. Here is what you need to know about navigating the divorce process in Oregon.

First, it's crucial to understand residency requirements for filing for divorce in Oregon. For a court to have jurisdiction over your case, you or your spouse must have resided continuously within the state for at least six months before filing. Additionally, suppose your spouse does not respond to the Petition paperwork within 30 days of being served with divorce papers. In that case, the court may proceed without their involvement as long as they have been appropriately notified of all proceedings related to the divorce action. This is called a "default."

The next step is deciding whether you want an uncontested or contested divorce. An uncontested divorce means both parties agree on issues such as child custody, child support payments, spousal support payments, and property division without litigation. This type of divorce is often less expensive and time-consuming than a contested one because it avoids any potential court battles over these matters. On the other hand, a contested divorce involves a disagreement between parties on some or all issues related to their separation. It requires them to litigate their differences before a judge finalizes each topic at stake in their case.

In Oregon, there are also additional considerations when it comes time for dividing marital assets during a dissolution proceeding. The state follows a doctrine known as "equitable distribution," which requires any property acquired during the marriage be divided by courts according to what they deem "fair" rather than an equal split between spouses — meaning that one spouse could potentially receive more than half depending on circumstances surrounding each party's respective circumstances during and after the marriage (such as length, earning capacity). It also includes retirement benefits earned by either party while married; these are typically subject to division upon dissolution unless otherwise agreed upon by both spouses beforehand via prenuptial agreement or other written document outlining financial arrangements throughout the marriage life cycle — something which should always be discussed prior entering into marriage given its potential implications later down the line if things don't work out as planned between two parties involved (as unfortunately happens sometimes).

Finally, when contemplating filing for divorce in Oregon, one should always consult with experienced family law attorneys who can help guide them through this complex process from start to finish — ensuring that all legal requirements have been met along the way while protecting the interests involved every step along the journey towards obtaining desired outcome from proceedings (e.,g., fair division marital assets/debts). According to statistics released by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), almost 70 percent of divorces filed within the United States involve an attorney representing either side — indicating the importance of having knowledgeable representation during this emotionally charged period life when making decisions which will impact rest individual's future years come!

Overall navigating through the legal system when getting divorced is no easy task; however, understanding rights and responsibilities under applicable state law, like those in Oregon, can make the entire procedure much smoother and less stressful for both parties involved, ultimately leading to better resolution for everyone concerned.