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Who prepares the settlement paperwork? · Family Law Talk

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Family Law Talk. Familylaw Talk presented by Kirk
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  Stangy of Stangy Law Firm PC. Stangy Law Firm is
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  a multi state family law firm. Now here's your host,
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  Kirk Stangy.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Family Law Talk. We have an interesting topic today.
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  The topic is who prepares the settlement paperwork? And this
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  episode today is based on an article on our blog
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  Familylawheadquarters dot com dated September eighth, twenty twenty five, and
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  the title of that article is who should draft the
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  settlement paperwork? So as a follow up to the episode today,
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  going over to Familawheadquarters dot com and read this blog
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  article for more information. But let's go ahead and jump
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  on into the topic at hand. Most individuals who are
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  going through divorceert family law matter would like to settle
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  their case. I mean, that's just the reality. Very few
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  people want a long contested case where the case costs
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  a lot of money and takes a bunch of time.
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  I mean, nobody really wants that. Of course, the issue
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  is the devil's in the details, and once you get
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  into the details, lots of parties disagree on the substantive
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  issues in the case, and that disagreement then leads to
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  a lot of cases being very hard to settle. All right,
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  but let's take a situation where the case has actually settled.
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  The parties have an agreement on everything, which is a
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  requirement in terms of all the relevant issues. The parties
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  have to agree. Okay, So let's take a situation where
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  the parties actually agree. And this could have taken place
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  many different ways based on the case. In some cases,
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  the parties just agree out of the gates. From my
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  experience as a lawyer, this is really pretty rare. Most
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  parties want this to be the case, but rarely is
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  it the case. But in some situations this can actually happen.
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  So take a case with the parties agree in the
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  terms of a divorce right out of the gates. In
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  other cases it might require settlement offers, going back and
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  forth between the attorneys who are dealing with offers and counteroffers.
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  And then let's take a situation where the parties eventually
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  reach an agreement. In other cases, parties have to go
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  to mediation and they work with a mediator, and then
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  at mediation, the hope is that they can come up
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  with a resolution or a compromise in order to settle
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  their case. And I've seen countless cases, I should say,
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  and this is sort of the majority, if you will,
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  which is the parties either settle in court, like on
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  the courthouse steps, or maybe they're in court on a
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  settlement conference or a pre trial conference, and the judge
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  gives some recommendations for settlement. And let's say the parties
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  settle in this kind of scenario. Okay, Well, no matter
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  how this takes place. When there's a settlement, then the
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  issue is who's going to draft the settlement paperwork? And
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  I think for a lot of parties this seems immaterial.
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  Most would think this isn't a big deal, But it
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  can actually turn into a bigger deal than most people
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  can actually realize. All right, so this can take place
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  quite a bit different in a lot of cases. But
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  what I see quite a bit, and have seen this
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  throughout my career, is the parties divide ups drafting the paperwork.
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  So in other words, the lawyers for the husband and
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  the lawyers for wife all draft different portions of the
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  settlement paperwork and then they compile this together. All right.
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  In some cases, the guardian at lighter might even get
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  involved in terms of drafting the parenting plan, and then
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  the party's lawyers draft the other portions of the paperwork.
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  Of course, this sort of begs the question, why is
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  there so much settlement paperwork that needs to be put
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  together in order to resolve a case? And I understand
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  why a lot of people would think that, but the
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  truth is in terms of the legal requirement, So there's
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  a lot of stuff that has to be put together
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  in order to settle a case. So take a divorce,
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  for example, there's going to be a judgment form or
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  a divorce decree. And then if there's property and debt
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  that has to be divided, there has to be a
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  marital selling and separation agreement. And this can be tedious
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  and ardulous because parties have to list all their property,
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  all their debts. You've got to have last four digits
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  of account numbers in the settlement paperwork. If there's real estate,
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  you've got to have the real estate description, and if
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  there's vehicles, you got to have the vehicle identification numbers
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  and various other things. So the marital settlement separation agreement
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  can involve a lot of work. And then we talked
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  about this before, but where there's kids, then there has
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  to be what's called a parented plan or custy schedule
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  put together all right, and this has to denote who
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  gets the kids when in terms of each day of
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  the week, and then you're dealing with holidays, you're dealing
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  with summer visitation in various other terms as well, in
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  terms of you know, how decisions are made and if
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  the parties can't agree, do they go to mediation, do
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  they go to arbitration, do they have a parent coordinator
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  or whatnot? And so all of that has to be
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  in the parenting planter cussing schedule, and that can be
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  quite arduous. And then in most states, child support calculations
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  have to be done and attached to the judgment somehow
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  or incorporate into the judgment somehow. And then you get
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  into an issue of in a lot of cases, parties
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  sign AffA David's so that they don't have to appear
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  in court to have the judge sign the settlement paperwork.
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  In some cases that might not be possible, but you've
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  got these affi Davids as well, and you can translate
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  this into different types of family law cases. If it's
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  not a divorce, then you take out the marital settlement
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  separation agreement. For example, if it's a paternity case or
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  if it's a modification or something like that, then you
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  wouldn't need that, but you're still going to need in
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  most cases this other paperwork. And so the question gets
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  into houses paperwork drafted, okay, and in some cases you're
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  literally talking about three lawyers doing it. So you could
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  have the attorney for the husband drafting part of paperwork,
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  you could have the attorney for the wife drafting another
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  part of the paperwork. And let's say the guardian at
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  lighten wants to do the parenting plan. So now you've
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  got three lawyers involved trying to draft this paperwork, okay.
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  And so the issue is this, and this is why
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  it can be a big issue. I mean, once you
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  get three attorneys involved, this process can become slow. You know,
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  one attorney might draft this paperwork pretty quick, another attorney
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  might be busy and it might take them a while, okay.
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  And so for parties who settle, most of the time,
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  at least what I've seen is they want to then
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  get the case done quick. But there can be a
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  period of weeks or months where parties are taking their
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  time to have the paperwork put together because their lawyers
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  have other cases and other things that they're doing, so
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  they're taking their time. And then even when the paperwork's prepared,
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  then maybe one of the lawyers wants revisions or amendments
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  or additions to the paperwork, So then you're going back
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  and forth on these various drafts, and this can really
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  slow the process down, all right. And hearing this, a
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  lot of individuals think, well, was there a quicker way
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  to do this? Is there a more efficient way to
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  do this? And the truth is yeah, sometimes, And the
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  way that can take place is if a party just
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  tells their lawyer, look, just draft all the paperwork, just
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  do it all, and do it quick, because I want
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  to get this case done quick. All right. Well, what
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  would be the downsides of that, potentially, Well, the party
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  who's paying their lawyer to draft all the settlement paperwork
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  then is going to incur more in fees if the
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  lawyer is the one doing it all. So while it
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  might be quicker to have their lawyer just do the paperwork,
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  you know, themselves, and do it quicker if they're willing
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  and able to do it, it's going to cost them
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  some more money. So that can cause parties some pause
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  where they want to have this divvied up. That way,
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  they're not incurring all the fees for having the settlement
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  paperwork drafted. Of course, the other issue is sometimes the
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  other attorneys won't agree to this, Like the guardian at
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  lighter might insist like, no, I'm going to do the
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  parenting plan and I don't want another lawyer doing it.
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  And another lawyer might object to the other lawyer drafting
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  all the paywork. I mean, maybe they want to draft
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  a certain portion of it themselves because they think it's important.
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  Frank's Y or Z reason. All right, So even where
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  a party's willing to pay their lawyer to draft all
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  the settlement paperwork, you still have one or two other
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  attorneys in the case too. If there's a guardian I
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  light them and they have to agree to let the
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  one lawyer draft everything, and they might not agree to it. Okay,
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  So look, ultimately, who drafts a settlement paperwork That could
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  be a big issue, and it could be something that
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  lots of parties don't think about, They don't contemplate, they
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  don't even realize it's such a big deal. But it
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  can be a big deal. And the other thing I
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  would say, apart from the cost and the speed, I've
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  seen happen over the course of time, is that once
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  it takes a while for the paperwork to get drafted. Okay.
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  So if we're talking about a case where it takes
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  weeks or months to have this paperwork put together after
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  there is a purported agreement, what I've seen happen in
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  some cases is that the agreement on ravels and a
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  lot of listeners would say, well why is that? Well, look,
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  there could be intervening events that take place that get
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  the parties worked up or riled up, and now a
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  party who was willing to settle doesn't want to settle anymore. Okay,
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  So you know, I think time is important for parties
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  who want to get the case done through settlement. If
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  it's taken a long time to have this paperwork drafted,
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  I think the chances grow by the day that the
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  settlement agreement will never be put into play because intervening
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  events will take place like fins, arguments, bickering, or new
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  ambiguities occur, or new events occur, or circumstances change, and
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  so now parties don't want to sign the settlement paperwork anymore.
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  So look, at most instances I parties truly want to settle,
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  it's important to have this paperwork done quickly and have
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  both parties sign it and have the judge approve it
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  before somebody gets cold feed or changes their mind. Of course,
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  this is complicated for the reasons that I've just stated
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  that once you get three attorneys involved in terms of
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  draft and the paperwork, you know, hopefully it goes quick
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  and for the listeners, obviously, I'm sure that's what you want,
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  for it to go quick and for it to be executed,
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  you know, by both parties in terms of signing it
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  and the judge signing it, and so it's official. But
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  in a lot of cases you just have to realize
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  from the date that the case purportedly settles to the
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  date that the agreement is put together and the judge
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  approves that it could be weeks or months. And so
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  that's sort of the disy part of settlement agreements and
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  divorce or family law that I wanted to cover here today. Okay,
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  definitely an interesting topic for parties. Looking for more information
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  on this topic again going over to familaw headquarters dot
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  com read the article of date at September eight, twenty
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  twenty five titled who should draft a settlement paperwork? This
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  will give you more information on this topic, but thanks
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  for tuning in today. Stay tuned for our next episode
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  of Family Law Talk coming up. Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Family Law Talk with Kirk Stangy.
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  Is it Stangy Lawfirm dot com for more about today's
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