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Situations When You Need the Services of a Lawyer


— June 29, 2020

Getting a lawyer involved will give you peace of mind, assurance, and formal documentation of everything agreed.


The reality of life involves legal aspects, most especially if someone caused you or your loved ones harm, relationship issues, or being accused by someone for something you have or haven’t done. When speaking of legalities, you need to seek the legal services of a lawyer, someone who has in-depth knowledge and experience in handling various legal cases.

In this post, you’ll learn the different situations where you need to seek help from a lawyer.

Family Matters: Ruined Marriage

The last thing married couples would consider despite all the misunderstandings and lovers’ quarrel is to undergo divorce. As much as possible, parents want to stick together for the sake of their children, avoid complications in child custody, and of course, the psychological trauma that this situation may bring. 

However, irreconcilable differences and other reasons may warrant the need for couples to undergo divorce and save the friendship, respect, or civil relations as much as possible. At this point, you might consider marriage counseling and seeking legal help from a family law attorney Texas specialist. 

Here are the other legal aspects that family lawyers expertly handle:

  • Custody: When you have problems with schedules or visitation rules or who among you gets physical custody of your children, a family lawyer should be consulted.
  • Spousal Support: It’s also called “alimony.” A family lawyer can help you seek spousal support, so your spouse or ex-spouse provides regular payments, like a monthly child or family financial support.
  • Adoption: If you want to adopt a child, you need to consult a family lawyer so that the process is approved legally or undergo the formal court system.
  • Paternity: If there’s a doubt about the identity of the child, a DNA test will be carried out so as the court can recognize the father of the child. In this way, the court can ask the father to provide financial support if proven that he’s the biological father of the child.
  • Child Support: A family lawyer can help you seek monthly payments or child support from your spouse or partner. It will help take care of all the essential things that your child needs– food, shelter, education, and medical care. 
  • Legal Separation: If you don’t want to undergo divorce, a family lawyer can help you find another legal option to divorce, which is a legal separation. The couple still remains married under the law but divides all their marital assets to live separately. 
  • Guardianship: A legal guardian, with the help of a family lawyer, may enter the picture if the natural parents are unable to care for their child. It’s also the same legal process that applies to incapacitated adults.

Undue Harm: Considering Filing a Personal Injury Case

If you or your loved ones are victims of negligence or recklessness, like a car accident or medical malpractice, a personal injury attorney TX can help. While most personal injury cases are closed through settlement, the process can be long and tedious, often times taking years to get resolved.

Bike vs. car accident, bike on side in road; image by LosAngeles PersonalInjuryAttorney, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, no changes.
Bike vs. car accident, bike on side in road; image by LosAngeles PersonalInjuryAttorney, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, no changes.

A personal injury lawyer will assess the monetary value of your injuries and insist on the insurance company to provide you a fair settlement offer. Once your case has been reviewed, a thorough investigation will be carried out to find out if there’s substantial evidence, and take the case to the next level if so proven. 

Here are the other situations or cases that you need to seek the services of a personal injury lawyer:

  • Wrongful Death: It’s a type of lawsuit you can file when your loved one died because of someone else’s carelessness, such as car and truck crashes, medical malpractice, nursing home neglect, defective product, construction accidents, and airplane accidents. A personal injury lawyer will seek just recovery for the damages caused by the wrongful death.
  • Workplace Accident: If you’ve been injured or your loved one has been killed while working, a personal injury lawsuit can be filed against the employer. Employers should provide benefits to all their injured employees, including medical treatment, disability benefit or lost wages for “temporary disability,” and “permanent partial disability” or a lump-sum payment.
  • Premises Liability: It refers to accidents or damages caused by a defective or a dangerous condition on the land of another person, including commercial properties like grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, retail stores, and malls.

Victims of Crimes

Crimes range in severity, including personal crimes, inchoate crimes, property crimes, financial crimes, and statutory crimes. 

1. Personal Crimes

Personal Crimes result in either physical or emotional or mental harm, which is divided into homicide and violent crimes. 

If the physical harm is so severe, it may cause death, and the defendant or suspect may be charged with either homicide, such as first-degree murder, vehicular homicide, or voluntary manslaughter. On the other hand, violent crimes are very severe, such as the following:

  • Arson
  • Assault and battery
  • Kidnapping
  • Child abuse
  • Domestic abuse
  • Rape and statutory rape

2. Statutory Crimes

Statutory crimes refer to drug crimes, alcohol-related crimes, financial or white-collar crimes, and traffic offenses. These crimes are prohibited by statute due to society hopes, deterring people from engaging in these activities. Alcohol-related crimes vary depending on where and how the alcohol is consumed. It may include the following:

  • Driving Under the Influence (DUI/DWI)
  • Minor Who is in Possession of Alcohol
  • Open Container Violations
  • Public Intoxication
  • Boating DUI
  • Underage DUI
  • Supplying and Selling Alcohol to Minors
  • Refused to Perform a Field Sobriety Test
  • Refused to Provide a Blood Sample or Perform a Breathalyzer 

3. Financial Crimes

Financial crimes usually involve fraud or deception for personal interest or financial gain. White-collar crimes obtain their name from corporate officers who historically committed fraud or perpetrated these crimes. Some examples of financial crimes include tax evasion, blackmailing, money laundering, and cybercrime.

Conclusion

The above-mentioned situations would prompt you to consult a lawyer to ensure that your best interest and rights are safeguarded. While you can also file a claim on your own for accident damages or work with your spouse to resolve family matters in private, getting the law involved will give you peace of mind, assurance, and formal documentation of everything agreed.

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