Injuries to Children

As our personal injury lawyers know, injuries to children are serious matters. These injuries can be very detrimental to the family as the stress of caring for an injured child often leads to disagreements between spouses. This ultimately leads to the parents wanting a divorce. If you or a loved one is experiencing conflict within a family or marriage and are seeking legal help, you should reach out to an attorney, according to a family lawyer from our friends at Kempen & Company. Although family lawyers possess much sage wisdom, the following are a few pieces of advice they wish to share with their clients.

1. When going through a difficult family situation, divorce, or child custody battle, clients should refrain from posting their frustrations online. While it may feel enticing to vent to friends and family on the internet, it is not advised by attorneys. Posting something negative on a social media platform could have disastrous, long-term consequences for a client. For example, if a client posts about their spouse online in a negative, hurtful way that could greatly affect a judge’s ruling on child custody down the road. Once posted online, anyone can access that information. That is why it is crucial to think before uploading anything to the internet.
2. If you are experiencing frustration during a divorce, an experienced family lawyer will advise their client to not voice those frustrations to your children. Although it may feel good to talk poorly about your spouse to your kids in order to gain sympathy or support, in reality, it puts your children in a very difficult position. Attorneys understand all too well the stress that a divorce can bring upon a family, especially young kids. That is why they recommended finding a third party, a listening friend to vent to instead of your kids, or strangers on the internet. If a judge finds out that a client has been speaking ill of their spouse to their children, it may negatively affect their child custody decision. Legally speaking, when a client deliberately tries to persuade their children, and turn them against their spouse it is referred to as parental alienation. This situation is so severe that it is sometimes classified as legal child abuse and called hostile aggressive parenting.
3. When you are in the middle of a strenuous divorce, child custody battle, or family conflict it may be tempting to let your emotions dictate your decisions, however, a family lawyer may advise their client to carefully think before communicating or taking action. For example, while you may feel very attached to the home you and your spouse raised your children in, it may not be financially wise to demand that you ascertain that asset in a divorce. Having physical custody of the house may grant you emotional happiness, but will also add a lot of financial burdens if you now have the sole responsibility of paying for the mortgage and utilities. Thinking through these situations, and their long-term effects will help you navigate this difficult process. Thankfully, wise family lawyers will assist their clients in determining what assets to negotiate and fight for. Having an attorney that works for their client’s best interest will not only serve you well in the divorce process but long after as well.