Interviewer: What about your representation? What would you say makes your firm and you different and be particularly suited for these kind of cases versus other firms?
Michael Anderson: We actually care about people. We want them to succeed and be happy, and we want them to have the outcome that they want. So we don’t try and push people to go to trial just for fun. We do actively in and I think we want to help people through the mediation and divorce process so they can get the best result that they possibly can. There are times when clients want to give up some benefit to receive a different benefit. Sometimes custody to the party is more important than money. And so we’re happy to advice our clients as long as they know what they’re giving up; we’re happy to help them accomplish that. But like I said, most cases will resolve in a settlement at mediation because most people will want to get the case over, the want to move on with their live, and most people are reasonable. And so asking parties to kind of negotiate and move on certain things, they’ll do it. But our goal as attorneys is to help people through the process, make them understand everything they are entitled to, what they would get in court, and then if they want to negotiate from that, they’re more than able to do that. But we always actively work in good faith to try and resolve the situation for our clients. We have, like I said, years and years of experience so we’ve been down this road several times. And we know each case is unique so we want to get through those unique things with each client so they’re happy. So at the end of the day, they’re happy with the result they’ve achieved and they can move on with their lives and not worry about that something could bind them.
Notable Case Examples of Divorce in the State of Utah
Interviewer: Any interesting case that is of you know, really beneficial things you’ve been able to do and against really adversarial circumstances?
Michael Anderson: Yes there was a case that we did a little bit ago where we represented the wife and the husband had a criminal record, and the daughter had not seen her dad for about five years – the daughter was now seven years old at the time this went to trial. And he was trying to simply get a reunification or visitation in place. And we tried that case and we were able to get some extremely strict requirements on him in order for him to have a reunification – he had to prove that he was drug free for a period of ninety days, and that was through a hair follicle drug test. We also had to prove that he was clean for an entire year without any criminal convictions, and he had to have all the supervised visits on the reunification. Now my client is quite sure that he wouldn’t jump throughout the hoops that the court put in place, so she’s quite confident that he won’t be exercising his supervised visitation rights any time soon. So by doing that we were able to protect not only the child, but we were able to get the mom what she wanted which was some safety from a guy who really had some trouble in the past. Another case study that we did recently was, we did a very high-end divorce – successful business owner leaving his wife for 17 years – we were able to get her a very large amount of alimony that would go on for almost the length of the marriage, we got 14 years. And mom was a stay-at-home mom and is now going back to school – she’s in college – and she’s quite happy. She got sole custody on that case as well. Dad gets visitation rights.
It is Absolutely Imperative To Have a Thorough Outlook on a Divorce Case
Interviewer: Anything you want to add that’s really important?
Michael Anderson: It’s really important in divorce cases to be thorough. Sometimes people just want to come in and get it done and over with and kind of throw their hands up in the air. We’re happy to help those people but it’s important that we are thorough and we get everything done correctly, written out, and properly addressed. Because if we don’t do that, like I said, there’d be problems in the future. So clients if they’re going to come in, they should bring paperwork with them, documents and any other information that they have so we can move forward.
