The trial brief is what the family law judge reads prior to, and during, your trial. It presents your case and how you would like the judge to rule on the contested issues.
If you are writing a trial brief, gathering supporting documents and preparing your witnesses, it means you have not settled your case.
Because trials are costly and time consuming, expect 3 to 4 hours of preparation time for every hour in court.
Sometimes the case cannot be resolved due to a dispute of facts, interpretation, or application of the law. Can you break out that fact for the court to decide it separately? This also includes breaking out the point, or application, of the law. For example, the date of separation may decide what is separate property assets and separate property debt, which includes property assets and community property debt.
If the date of separation is the “sticking point” ask the court to have a trial solely on the date of separation. If there is a dispute on how a certain law or formula applies, ask the court to take judicial management of the case and ask for a ruling on the application of that certain law or formula. You produce a trial brief around the issue of contention.
Finally, if the court system is impacted, and hiring a private judge would accelerate the process of getting the client through the family law system, use the private judge option.
