1. Henley & Henley Gatz, P.C. is a
father-daughter firm. We practice family law, and
specialize in the areas of divorce and child
custody. We are located at the corner of 8th
Street and Cheyenne Boulevard in Colorado Springs.
If you are interested in meeting with us, please
contact us at (719) 471-4782 to set up an initial
consultation or click
here to fill in out online form and we will
contact you. Initial consultations are billed at
an hourly rate, and payment is due at the end of the
consultation. At the consultation, we can give you
a general overview of the family law process, and
answer questions that you may have about your
individual case.
2. Your cooperation is very
important. A client must keep us informed of any
change of address, phone number, employment and
circumstances. Full disclosure to us of all facts
is essential to enable us to properly represent you.
3. The competitive spirit spouses
may bring to these cases sometimes leads to requests
to "take him for everything he's got" or "don't let
her get a nickel", or requests that we not tell the
other side of the existence of assets our client
wants to keep. We do not, and will not, practice
law that way. We will request that you receive what
the law says is your rightful share of the assets,
and will only deal honestly in revealing what assets
exist to be divided. Each side owes that duty of
candor to the other. It is what is known as a
fiduciary duty.
4. Attorney Responsibilities:
Domestic relations cases are governed by unique
rules and statutes. One of the rules governing
these cases is Rule 16.2. It states that persons
involved in domestic relations cases are in a
special relationship to each other and that each
person has a
duty
to provide complete and honest disclosure of all
material facts to the other and to the court. This
duty to disclose exists
even if the other
party does not formally ask for the information.
As your attorneys, we will advise you about what
facts and information must be disclosed to the other
side.
5. Client Responsibilities: As the
client, you have a legal
duty
to disclose all the facts and information that may
affect the outcome of your case. This information
may be in the form of documents, like tax returns,
or pay stubs; or it may simply be information that
you know about, such as prior health problems, or an
appraisal, or offer to purchase an asset. By court
rule, you and the other party have the legal duty to
provide this information to each other and the
court, even if it may be unfavorable to one or the
other of you. Any attempt to conceal such
information violates this duty and will not be
tolerated by the court. If you choose not to follow
our advice on what information must be disclosed, we
would have to withdraw from the case.
6. We do not try to take the place
of the Court in negotiating a settlement, but we do
attempt to use our experience as a guideline for
recommending to clients what we consider
reasonable. Due to the high volume of work imposed
upon Judges in this District and the short period of
time they usually have to devote to an individual
case, we feel that in most cases, if the attorneys
are reasonable and the parties involved are
reasonable, they can achieve a better result through
settlement than through a Judge's decision. It is
possible to have your case handled by Arbitration
and/or Mediation, in place of resolution by Trial.
In the last several years we have come to the
conclusion that Mediation and/or Arbitration before
a privately selected, talented person who is well
informed in domestic relations matters is a better
process than Trial. Mediation/Arbitration allows
for a more creative and considered approach to
resolving disputed issues than a Trial. For this
reason, Mediation/Arbitration is often preferred by
clients over a Trial. In Mediation, the result is
achieved by the parties' agreement; in Trial and
Arbitration, issues are decided the way the Judge or
Arbiter feels they should be, whether or not the
parties agree. If a case is not resolved by
agreement by just attorneys and the parties, these
alternative means of dispute resolution are worthy
of consideration in place of a Trial.
