If your divorce involves high assets, then you may wonder if it’s best to continue in public family court or if you should work with a private family law judge. This isn’t something you should rush into. There are many factors that should be taken into consideration, and while we’ll cover some of them below, this is not an exhaustive list of what you should take into account. He best option is to talk directly to a family law attorney who can advise on your specific case.
The 3 main advantages of working with a private family law judge
Though not all of these will necessarily apply to your situation, there are three main advantages to working with a private family law judge. First, a private judge can often get your case moving more quickly. Not everyone wants that, but if you want your case to move fast then you’ll likely have better luck with a private judge who doesn’t have thousands of cases in front of them.
Which leads us to the second advantage: A private judge will typically be able to devote more time to your divorce case. This means that they can better take the time to understand the unique facts of your case and that they can take more time to assess the options available to them and to you.
Finally, a private judge will likely have more experience than a public one. Of course, this isn’t always true and depends on who you decide to hire. However, many private law judges are former judges who’ve retired, or former family law lawyers who’ve retired. If you choose a public judge, you’ll be at the mercy of whomever is assigned to your case. They could have just a few months experience as a judge or they could have decades – it’s all a gamble.
The 2 main disadvantages of hiring a private family judge
The main disadvantage to working with a private family judge is likely no surprise: It’s expensive. While costs will vary, you can expect to pay more for your private judge than you pay for your attorney. What’s more, it’s billed at an hourly rate in most cases. This means that for every document that’s filed, your cost goes up. This could lead to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in judge’s fees.
The second main issue is that private judges may feel that they have to please their clients – which in this case are the attorneys who’ve hired them. While a public judge’s pay and livelihood won’t depend on how they rule in a particular divorce case, this won’t necessarily be true of a private judge. You won’t always know their motivations.
There are some cases in which it’s worth it to hire a private judge but in most cases, a public judge is just fine. To learn more about your many options please reach out to the experience attorneys at Kendall Gkikas & Mitchell by calling 909-482-1422.
