Law Offices of Kenneth T Holder
FAMILY LAW
Mediation
Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) where both sides of a dispute meet together with a neutral professional, who listens to both arguments and tries to work both sides toward a compromise.
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Do You Need a Lawyer?
It’s unfortunate, but too many attorneys treat their practice as a business and less like the profession our law office believes it should be. To make matters worse, there are many occasions where paying an attorney thousands of dollars is unnecessary, but because of the sales and fear tactics employed by an attorney consultation; many clients retain an attorney needlessly and become locked into a non-refundable retainer where very little representation (if any) by the attorney is rendered. Our office is committed to not engage in this type of practice. When we offer you a free consultation, you are guaranteed to become a well-informed client, confident that you are making the right decision as to whether you need to hire an attorney and making sure that you are hiring the right attorney who will give you the type of representation you were told you would receive.
Analyzing and understanding your case.
Although it may take some time and patience on your part, you can review the Penal Code yourself on-line and learn the requirements that must be met in order to prosecute and the penalties that could result if a prosecution against you is successful.
NOTE: Need to insert a link to the Penal Code at www.leginfo.ca.gov
Once you have studied the elements of your case, you still should follow through with an attorney consultation. The reason is that despite the penalties and punishments you discover in your research, there are many alternatives, which the California Penal Code does not discuss and that you may not be aware of. Even more important, one of our attorneys can make the legal language in the Penal Code easier for you to understand. Our office is committed to constantly explore all of the alternatives and options for our clients. If you have a case that is likely to turn against you, then it is our commitment to ensure that you do not suffer needless penalties or time in custody by what has increasingly become an uncaring and overreaching judicial process that often overlooks factors that can minimize a punishment against you. Not all cases go to trial and most probably should not. With you as an active participant in your own defense, we can ensure that your facts are reviewed in detail, brought to light in the courtroom, and given proper weight in our pretrial conversations with the prosecutors
Selecting your Attorney.
Your objective in hiring an attorney to get the best possible outcome for your legal matter. It is a well-known adage that “you get what you pay for”. In other words, if you have a “free” attorney representing you, then be prepared to get a result that is indicative of very little, if any, effort on your behalf. Similarly, if you hire a tax attorney or a worker’s compensation attorney to represent you in your criminal case, be prepared to get a result from an attorney who has no experience in dealing with the criminal courts system. If it helps to clear up the dilemma, you can imagine the outcome of a foot specialist doctor performing open-heart surgery on a patient. The outcome is highly unlikely to end very well for the patient. When you are discussing your case over the phone with an attorney, look for the following warning signs:
The initial phone call:
- Is the attorney going through the facts of your case so that he clearly understands them; or is he simply glossing over the facts, trying to end the call quickly, and pressing you to come into the office? This is indicative of an attorney who is focused more on treating his practice as a “business” and less likely as a “profession”.
- Is the attorney willing to discuss fees with you frankly; or is he vague as to how much your case is going to cost you? Since criminal cases are typically based upon a flat-fee structure, an experienced criminal attorney should be able to provide you a fairly close idea of the legal costs you are likely to incur.
Getting the “biggest bang for your buck”.
- The experience level of your attorney can often be a “double-edged sword”. On one hand, an experienced attorney has a lengthy association with the law and is probably familiar with the court personnel, the courts themselves, and often has a good grasp of the likely outcome, even before your first court date.
- However, this experience and familiarity with the likelihood of the outcome can limit an experienced attorney’s devotion to your case to where he may simply pursue the same outcome as he did with all similar clients that came before you. This can often prevent the attorney from looking into the details of your case that might make a result more favorable in our matter.
The fact is: Very quickly, even new criminal attorneys can be brought up to the familiarity levels required in criminal courts. One reason is because BY LAW, they are obligated to do so. Oftentimes, however, less experienced attorneys are not so jaded by the system and are willing to look beyond the closed box in which more experienced attorneys operate. This can be an important factor in deciding to hire the commitment level of a lesser inexperienced attorney who will go “all out” to avoid his client doing jail time vs. hiring a more experienced attorney who simply conducts business as usual.
About: Mediation
As a state certified mediator working for the Orange County Court system, Ken Holder developed a unique strategy of patience and a detail-oriented approach to reach settlement agreements and to repair contract relationships between what were initially adverse parties. Where many mediators work off of a “canned” boilerplate type of agreement, Ken treats every mediated dispute individually so that no issue goes unnoticed and as a result, every agreement results in a uniquely drafted document in which both parties experience a high level of input.
Filing a lawsuit and going to trial is not only costly, but often gets so messy and complicated that the opposing parties end up paying more in attorney fees as a result than the rewards and benefits received from the ultimate judgment. In many cases, the problems that created the conflict in the first place can often be less expensive and more easily resolved if the opposing parties commit to working with a neutral professional who can guide them and work with them to create their own solution to a problem so that a decision, while perhaps not optimal from the standpoint of both parties, is certainly fair and reasonable.
Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) where both sides of a dispute meet together with a neutral professional, who listens to both arguments and tries to work both sides toward a compromise.” Two important things to remember are that a mediated solution is an option to be accepted or rejected by the parties and both parties are very active in solving the problem. By comparison, another form of ADR is “arbitration,” which is legally binding, the parties have far less input in the decision, and the resolution can often take months or years. In civil and family court cases, mediation methods are gaining widespread support. After an agreement, a contract can be drawn up and signed by both parties at which time it will move quickly through the courts. For divorce or child custody cases, parents often find it easier to negotiate a settlement in the interest of all the family members through mediation, dividing responsibilities and shared property with a process that allows them more control over the outcome. If the mediator is called into the conflict early enough, the emotional costs in a breakup can be much lower than it would be in an adversarial court setting.
As a state certified mediator for the past 5 years, Ken Holder has defined his role to specifically help both parties gain a Win-Win resolution based upon the characteristics of their particular case and by working off of individually crafted agreements. Most importantly, Ken believes it is imperative that once the agreement is completed, both parties must be able to leave the table feeling that all issues were discussed in detail and the resolution done fairly. This is where most mediators, particularly court-appointed mediators fail. By working off of “canned” boilerplate documents, far too many issues go unaddressed and too often, lead parties back into a dispute because of weakly written agreements or because certain issues went unnoticed.