Family Law Attorneys in Alabama

Our divorce and family law attorneys can help you with your situation, no matter where you are located. We have offices across the State of Alabama and will be happy to speak to you about your legal issue. If you are interested in a cheap uncontested divorce, we are currently charging a low flat fee to get your divorce done easily without any court in most cases. An uncontested divorce is where both parties are in agreement about all of your marital issues.

If you are interested in a contested divorce in Birmingham, or anywhere else in Alabama, then our local family law attorneys can help too. It just requires a higher retainer payment for us to get started and is much more complex than an uncontested divorce. There are hearings, negotiations, and eventually a trial where the judge decides all issues once and for all.

If you need a post divorce petition filed we usually charge retainers for that as well. When you call and speak to our family law attorney we can also quote our retainer fees for additional matters such as adoptions, custody, or divorce modifications. 

All divorce proceedings in Alabama begin with the filing of a document called a Complaint.  The Complaint is a legal document that basically is asking the particular Court for specific things. Some things the Complaint might ask for are an Order granting him or her a divorce and to award certain things to them concerning the division of marital property, custody, and other marital issues.

An uncontested divorce is where both parties reach an agreement before a case is started, and the agreement is filed at the same time as the Complaint.  All of the required documents are filed with the Complaint and settlement agreement, that has already been signed by both parties, so that the divorce can proceed to be signed by the Judge without the need for a hearing, since both parties are in agreement at the time of filing.

These types of divorces are cheaper than filing without an agreement, since our Birmingham and Montgomery divorce lawyers will usually charge a low, flat fee to prepare the documents for you. Since there are no contested issues, family law attorneys can know that they won’t have to go to court so can just charge you for preparing paperwork and filing it.

An uncontested divorce can be done for a low flat fee. However, to file a contested divorce, you will have to pay our attorney a retainer. This retainer is a lump sum amount that allows the lawyer to bill out of. The contested divorce lawyer starts work on the case and bills you at an hourly rate, using the retainer to pay them for the hours worked on your case.

Once a divorce is over, the parties are ordered to abide by the divorce decree. So if one party is ordered to pay child support or to vacate a home, they must do so or be held in contempt of court. To hold your ex-spouse in contempt of court you have to file something called a Petition for Contempt or Rule Nisi Petition.

This is a filing where you lay out what they were ordered to do in the prior divorce decree (pay child support or transfer their rights by deed to you for example) and ask the judge for a hearing. At the hearing, the Court holds determines whether the ex-spouse did what they were ordered to do or not. However, they must hold a full evidentiary hearing and listen to both sides.

This means your attorney will have to present all of the facts to back up your allegations and the ex-spouse’s family law attorney will do the same. At the end of that trial the judge will ultimately determine whether to hold them in contempt or not. Call our family law attorney today for information on filing a contempt petition where your divorce was entered.

Once a divorce decree has been entered, the parties sometimes want to go back and change something. Whether it is child support or custody that needs to be changed, we can help you do that. To change the child support or custody entered in prior divorce, you have to file something called a Petition for Modification.

In that filing you asks the judge to change the child support or custody arrangement and a hearing is set. If your ex-spouse is in agreement, then you can file an uncontested petition to modify and it can be ordered without any hearings at all. This is usually cheaper way to do this, but if your ex-spouse is not in agreement about the changes then you cannot do it without hearings.

In order to adopt a child, there are several things that must be done prior to the petition for adoption ever taking place. Petitions for Adoption are filed in the Probate Court of the County the child resides in. You typically need to retain a local attorney to file your petition and guide you through the adoption process.

Our retainer fees for adoptions depend on the complexity of your case. If it is a case of step-parent adoption, then we can quote a lower discounted retainer fee than in other cases. However, the retainer will usually be lower if the biological parents are in agreement and higher if they are not. Call us today for a quick phone consultation with our family law attorney and they can usually quote you a retainer fee the same day you call.