Divorce is really just a sub-set of civil law. A divorce lawyer is a person who practices civil law, which includes the courts and all of the procedures and laws that govern how people deal with each other in lawful relationships. A divorce lawyer can be a judge, lawyer, minister or other legal official. Many lawyers who practice civil law also practice family law, which means they handle divorce and are the primary or leading subset of legal work a divorce lawyer does, but in some jurisdictions divorce is the only type of legal work done by a divorce lawyer.
Some jurisdictions require that divorce lawyers have their own private law offices and they may not appear in the courts or on their client's behalf in any way. Divorce lawyers are independent contractors. They receive part of their fees from their clients and part from the government for their services. Because they are self-employed attorneys they are entitled to certain protections under the law as an attorney.In a divorce lawyer's office there will be display cabinets where cases are stored and file cabinets where the files for legal work are kept. The displays will list which attorney is currently handling a particular case and which attorney is assigned to the case. There may also be other special features for the specific office. Some offices keep all of the custody and child support papers, for example.Negotiating is one of the most common tasks handled by divorce lawyers.
This is the part of the job that involves talking to both spouses involved in the divorce case. Sometimes it is the best negotiating skills of both parties that will win the case for the attorney. There are many different ways to approach negotiating; one of them is called mediation.Mediation is when all parties involved in the divorce proceedings sit down with an impartial third party to talk through their problems and work out a solution. Mediation can take place with attorneys, or it can take place without attorneys. If the mediation process does not go well then the divorce lawyer and attorneys will go back to square one. Both parties are usually encouraged to attend mediation because it can help them work out the details of the divorce without needing to hire additional legal aid.In some cases where the divorce proceedings cannot be settled through mediation, the parties may agree to settle the matters through arbitration. Arbitration is another way of settling legal matters without hiring a divorce lawyer. When the matter is arbitration, one or both parties are given a legal professional to act as an arbitrator. If the arbitration process fails, then the case goes to trial.