Listen to this articleRight Lawyers opened its doors in 2004 with a single lawyer who had a deep passion for helping people. That lawyer was Stacy Rocheleau. The firm was called Rocheleau Law and was started in a small office, in an executive suite. Stacy had no paralegals or other attorneys to assist her. She had a rented desk, a tiny filing cabinet and an old home computer. Like every starving lawyer who staring out they take every case that comes across their desk. In the beginning Stacy handled bankruptcies, estate planning, contracts disputes, and divorce. 12 years later Stacy has grown the firm to five attorneys with two locations in Nevada that focuses on divorce and custody. The name changed its name to Right Lawyers, but Stacy’s passion for helping those going through a divorce has stayed the same. The growth and success of Right Lawyers has not gone unnoticed. In 2017 the Las Vegas Review Journal reader voted Right Lawyers the Best Divorce Lawyer in Las Vegas.
Below is our interview with Michael Rocheleau from Right Lawyers:
Q: Does every divorce need a divorce lawyer?
A: No, every divorce doesn’t need an attorney. No more than every tax filing needs a CPA, or every clogged sink needs a plumber. Some divorces are simple and easy and don’t require a lawyer to resolve the divorce. Southern Nevada has excellent resources, and self-help forms for couples who have minimal assets, and no children. These resources can help them file for a divorce without the need for attorneys. However, when a divorce is more complex a divorce attorney is advisable. If a couple have been married for more than seven years, have assets or debts of greater than $20,000 dollars, are looking for spousal support, have pensions that need to be divided, or have disagreement on child custody should look to a least talk with a lawyer.
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Q: What made you go virtual and use your website as a tool to work with clients?
A: Being virtual allows our lawyers to be more untethered from a desk. This in turns makes them more productive and to be more helpful to their clients. Lawyers spend half their day in court, and away from their office. This disconnect from their office files, and computer delays them in being able to respond and engage with clients during downtime at the court. With a virtual set-up our lawyers can quickly access files, notes, legal documents, and communicate with their clients. After the virtual platform was implemented we saw a need to answer simple questions, or provide basic advice to clients over and over. We decided to build tools, and guides on our website to help with these questions and to be more than an advertisement. The development of the website started with a divorce guide they could download, and some divorce worksheets they could complete with their spouse. The next stage was tools which started with child support calculator and spousal support calculator. The website continues to expand with a child custody calendar, and a marital balance sheet in the works.
Q: What is the divorce process?
A: The answer to that question is a long one. To simply the answer the divorce process is three stages; the beginning, discovery, and trial. In the beginning of a standard contested divorce the process starts with a complaint for divorce, followed by a response from the other spouse. Then couples exchange financial documents and attend a mandatory mediation session. The mediation is essential because the judge works to reduce some of the issues both couples can agree on moving forward only on the remaining undecided issues. Discovery is the next stage and this is where the attorney hold depositions and request documents from each other. The purpose of discovery is to gather evidence and information that will be used at trial to prove a spouse’s claims. Trial is the biggest stage. At trial the attorney will present evidence to the judge and make final arguments for their client’s claims. The judge will listen to the witnesses, and review the evidence before making a final decision.
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Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: Our future plans are to grow into Nevada’s biggest and most helpful divorce law firm. We have plans of dozens of website tools to help clients, and we are utilizing software and technology to help the attorney service their clients. The practice of law is an amazing profession when as an attorney you are able to spend time in court, or in front of clients, and not bogged down with minutia like tracking billable hours, or re-typing hand written notes into a court documents. With technology our attorneys can allow computers or staff to handle minutia efficiently and allow them to be the Right Lawyers.
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