There is an interesting article on the website PsychologyToday.com which features a highly regarded family lawyer, mediator and collaborative law practitioner in Pasadena, California by the name of Mark Bauer who sets out a number of very compelling reasons as to why it is generally not in the interests of a client to hire an ‘aggressive attorney’. The following are reasons why hiring an aggressive lawyer may not be in your best interests:

1. Aggressive lawyers tend to be belligerent and argumentative and usually carry this conduct into the courtroom. Judges generally don’t appreciate this attitude and this can impact against the client.
2. Aggressive lawyers usually means more court time, more correspondence, and more contentious phone calls between the solicitors, which means more costs to the client. If this has been incurred by both parties, then the value of the marital assets will be depleted significantly.
3. An aggressive separation or divorce will sadly usually set the scene for years to come between the parents and the impact of this can have very harmful effects on the children of the marriage. It is often the case that cases which are resolved following a very confrontational Court process will very often result in further Court applications as he conflict continues between the parties long after the separation or divorce has been decided.

Mr. Bauer talks about the ‘supreme importance, trust, mutual respect and communication between a client and his or her attorney to have a successful working relationship and a positive legal outcome’. This is good, sound and practical advice which should be kept in mind at all times by clients when choosing their solicitor, but it is always a difficult and traumatic experience i.e. trying to negotiate the choppy waters of a separation or divorce.