The Legal Process

Attorney Carol Caldwell handles marital and family law matters in St. Johns, Putnam, Flagler, Clay, and Duval Counties. Although settlement is the preferable method of resolving family law matters, Carol also handles litigation of all family law matters.

• Settlement of family law matters whether uncontested or contested may be accomplished by agreement of the parties in which case Carol will draft a settlement agreement.
  
  
• Mediation is another common method of settling family law matters in which both parties and their attorneys meet with a certified family law mediator to resolve the case and draft a settlement agreement.
  
  
• Collaborative family law is also available for resolving cases in a non-adversarial manner in which each party retains an attorney and the parties and their attorneys meet collaboratively to reach a resolution of the case and draft a settlement agreement. Carol has received specialized training in collaborative law and is a founding member of the St. Johns County Collaborative Family Law Group.
  
  
• Litigation is the process which will be used when settlement cannot be accomplished by one of the above methods. Trial will take place after discovery has been conducted. Family law trials are heard before a judge, not a jury. As you can imagine, litigation is a more costly and time consuming process than the others although some cases are only resolved through litigation for various reasons.