Why a Father’s Rights Law Center?
What is divorce going to cost me? Can I afford it?
What should I know about divorce?
What should I know about my children?
What should I know about support?
When is my case going to be over?
Where should I call for an appointment?
Why a Father’s Rights Law Center®?
Attorney Peter Mueller has been practicing law for 35 years. He was licensed in 1972 Illinois and in 1974 in California. His background as a trial lawyer allows him to apply his trial lawyer skills to provide a service to fathers facing divorce. He has also served as Professor at Corporate Law at Loyola in Chicago and served as Assistant Dean of the Business School. In 1977,
Mr. Mueller began practicing in the domestic field and founded the FRLC in 1984. He founded the center for several reasons. First, he recognized a need for fathers and men in the divorce system to assist them with custody, visitation and support. His own relationship with his family gave him greater sensitivity for the issues confronting fathers in divorce. As the father of four young children, he confronted the divorce system first hand. From the struggles and mistakes made during those crucial years, he developed the concept that fathers should not have to go through what he went through to obtain reasonable contact with my children.
That was the time that the initial rumblings in the psychiatric world began involving parental alienation issues. They were not recognized fully until the late ’80s when Dr. Richard Gardner published “The Parental Alienation Syndrome.” Dr. Gardner appeared and testified for Mr. Mueller as an expert witness in 1996 in one of the landmark cases for FRLC. The rapport that was developed with Dr. Gardner allowed Mr. Mueller to develop advances and techniques in issues involving custody.
Since becoming a certified family law specialist 15 years ago, Mr. Mueller has represented over 1,000 fathers and has developed a rapport with courts and colleagues.
What should I know about support?
Support is known as alimony and includes both spousal support and child support. In California, as in most states, we have a guideline that is an arithmetic formula that takes into consideration time share, after tax income, and ability of a nonworking spouse to work where that nonworking spouse refuses to work.
We have a system at the Father’s Rights Law Center® of obtaining court orders for a vocational assessment for nonworking spouses/mothers who tend to want to rely on child support and spousal support for too long. We recommend enhancing the time share because it is a part of the arithmetic formula for support. We also try to enhance the ability of the nonworking spouse to work full time.
When is my case going to be over?
Once the divorce is underway, the initial hearings have passed, and the parties understand that it divorce is not about which party has the better lawyer but how soon can each of the lawyers work together to bring the matters to a conclusion, the divorce will be underway. We try very hard to bring each case to a conclusion through a mediated settlement that can either be with or without court assistance.
Typically we have opportunities to have four way meetings with the two attorneys and two parties in an effort to come to partial or complete resolution in settlement of contested issues. Failing that, the court provides for a formal settlement conference, where a judge and the parties try to resolve the case. In those 5-10% of the cases where there is no settlement of all issues, we can either go through a short or long trial. A short trial can be over within 3 hours, whereas a trial on more complex issues can go on a week or longer.
You can anticipate your divorce will be complete in one year, or a little bit longer, in the average cases. We have been able to resolve some uncontested cases in as quickly as 30 days.
Where should I call for an appointment?
Our San Diego headquarters is now in San Marcos, California. We also have the ability to meet with clients in Rancho Bernardo, Del Mar Heights, and Mission Valley, and Chula Vista. Typically the phone calls are made to our toll free number, 1-800-4-LAW-HELP. The initial consultation is without charge, during which we will be able to handle your questions.
