Our Practice Philosophy
Next to death of a spouse, divorce is the second most stressful thing to go through. Add children and property issues to the mix and you have the recipe for a nightmarish process where each party wants to “win” at all costs, forgetting that the real costs are not money but bitterness and regret, and the potential that the children will play out their parents rage in their own lives. I approach each case with sensitivity and with an eye for a creative solution to complex problems.
The American Family Law system gives us an adversarial model for solving legal disputes that is best left for contract law. But thinking, caring people who work to put their differences side and keep the acrimony at bay can change the process from adversarial to cooperative, thus saving time, money and emotional pain for all involved.
There are situations where the intervention of the Court is the only solution to relationship conflicts. But where you can avoid playing out your personal drama in a courtroom, it is always best to agree with one another what is the best path to take towards resolution. Morinelli & Lieberman Law Group can provide you with a satisfactory alternative to the high conflict divorce and all its downstream drama and destruction.
I’ve been in Family Law practice since 1985, first as a criminal appellate attorney, and, since 2000, as a family law attorney. Practicing Family Law is the most challenging and gratifying thing I’ve ever done. As a parent and grandparent, I know the profound emotions at play in the tug-of-war over custody or visitation. I avoid viciousness in my negotiations and strive to be transparent and fair in all my undertakings.
I can walk with you through the steps it takes to complete a mediated or uncontested divorce, or to file a Request for Order of Custody, Visitation or Support.
“Marriage isn’t a love affair. It isn’t even a honeymoon. It’s a job. A long hard job, at which both partners have to work, harder than they’ve worked at anything in their lives before. If it’s a good marriage, it changes, it evolves, but it does on getting better. I’ve seen it with my own mother and father. But a bad marriage can dissolve in a welter of resentment and acrimony. I’ve seen that, too, in my own miserable and disastrous attempt at making another person happy. And it’s never one person’s fault. It’s the sum total of a thousand little irritations, disagreements, idiotic details that in a sound alliance would simply be disregarded, or forgotten in the healing act of making love. Divorce isn’t a cure, it’s a surgical operation, even if there are no children to consider.”