Making Divorce Work author Diana Mercer, at HuffPost Divorce:
If your lawyer is being honest, he or she will answer the following 9 questions:
1. What is my best case scenario in this case? If the Judge agreed with everything I say, and nothing that my spouse says, what do you predict the outcome to be?
2. What’s my worst case scenario in this case? If the Judge doesn’t agree with anything I say, but agrees with everything my spouse says, what do you predict the outcome to be?
3. What’s an optimistic, but realistic outcome?: Let’s say the Judge agrees with a good part of what I have to say, and some of what my spouse has to say, what do you predict the outcome to be?
4. What’s a pessimistic, but realistic outcome?: If the Judge agrees with a good part of what my spouse has to say, and only some of what I have to say, what do you predict the outcome to be?
Read ’em all. A lawyer who only tells you what you want to hear is not doing her job.