Awareness for the first appointment with a divorce lawyer

1. Before meeting divorce lawyer the first time, all necessary materials (or copies) shall be prepared for the lawyer to review, also, the background information shall be shared to the lawyer, including the reasons why a divorce verdict is sought or shall not be produced.
2. Since marriage and family affairs may involve personal privacy, if a lawyer arranges other lawyers or persons during the consultation, the lawyer will generally seek consent from the parties before consulting.
3. In addition to answering questions directly raised by the parties, a divorce lawyer may also analyze legal issues that may arise on the basis of the information provided by the parties.
4. The lawyer shall be detailed of the disputed issues, especially the admissibility (for example, whether the preferred court has the jurisdiction) of the case in Chinese local court. If the parties are in intense conflicts, lawyers would remind the client to calm down first and wait for some cooling off period. After being notified of the litigation risk, if the party still insists on filing the lawsuit, the lawyer may consider accepting the representation of the case.
5. The service scope of a lawyer shall be entirely based on the client's authorization, the decision of whether to divorce should only be made by the client. The lawyer will be in no position to make such decision or advise the client to divorce or not to divorce.
6. The client shall be aware that whether the people's court will decide divorce or not is based on the finding of whether the marriage has broken down (i.e. mutual affection no longer exists).
7.  If divorce is sought against soldiers, the divorce is subject to the consent of the soldiers, except that the soldier has a gross fault.
8. If the divorce is sought by a male, the male shall not file for divorce during the female’s pregnancy, one year after childbirth or within 6 months after termination of the pregnancy However, if it is the female who files for divorce or if the people's court deems it necessary to accept the male's divorce request (e.g., the infant turned out to be somebody else’s child), such case can be accepted.
9. For family violence, the victims of family violence also have the right to request residents’ committee to get involved and mediate. As for the ongoing domestic violence, victims have the right to request a police station to impose administrative penalties in accordance with the laws and regulations.
11. For a bigamy, domestic violence or abuse, or abandonment of family members, that constitutes a crime, the victim may request that the offender be prosecuted for criminal responsibility in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law. The public prosecution organ shall investigate the case and the people's procurator shall proceed with the prosecution in accordance with the laws.
12. The lawyer would also ask whether the client has talked about the option of divorce with his/her spouse and the parties' opinions on divorce, including thoughts on child support and property division.