Why a California Family Law Attorney Says TalkingParents Makes Life Easier
Elizabeth Yang is the CEO and Founder of Yang Law Offices, located throughout Southern California. She has been practicing law since 2007 and has extensive experience dealing with family law issues involving child custody, child support, divorce, domestic violence restraining orders, and more. Yang has represented family law clients at various stages of litigation and trial, and she earned her mediation certification from the Los Angeles County Bar Association in 2015. Additionally, Yang is a divorced mother of two young children, so she says she can relate to clients who are undergoing emotional divorces.
- 3 min read
Court & Communication
Yang mostly sees TalkingParents used in child custody cases in which she says there is a lot of he said, she said between both parties. Yang recommends TalkingParents to clients in these high-conflict situations regardless of whether they end up in court, but if they do go to court, she says she asks the judge to order it.
“I always tell my clients that there are multiple advantages of using it,” says Yang. “First of all, if they are having text message conversations, it’s really easy to manipulate those. Text messages can be easily deleted. Also, if you want to use those conversations as evidence in court, you have to go through and screenshot all of them. And that can be very time consuming.”
Yang tells clients that if they use TalkingParents, everything can be printed very easily, and nothing can be manipulated or deleted.
“I also tell my clients that when they use TalkingParents, they’re more respectful and professional in terms of communication,” she explains. “Because they know that a judge can easily read all of the communications and so they’re on their best behavior.”
Yang says she has seen cases settle outside of court because of TalkingParents.
“A lot of time in these cases, communication is the root cause of all issues,” says Yang. “So, once they’re able to communicate cordially on the app, like adults, it just automatically resolves a lot of their issues. So, I have seen cases where TalkingParents has been the solution.”
Records & Stipulations
Yang says some court proceedings have taken less time because there was a TalkingParents Record at play.
“In some cases, parties don’t have to testify personally, so there’s no he said, she said, or wondering who’s telling the truth,” says Yang. “The courts can just read the transcript and know exactly what happened. It’s all in writing so they can make a decision much more quickly.”
Communication stipulations are ordered in some of Yang’s cases as well.
“You may have a client who is ordered to respond within a certain number of hours, usually 12 or 24, to show that they’re being responsive and co-parenting,” explains Yang. “Both parents have to respond within a certain timeframe, and everything is timestamped so the court can see exactly how long it took someone to respond in the Record and if they were being unreasonable.”
Yang says that using a TalkingParents Record in court is easy.
“You can just print it out and attach it as an exhibit or a declaration,” explains Yang. “That supports a request for order or some kind of motion, and it’s an easy exhibit that everyone can read. We file it with the court, serve it on opposing counsel, and everyone has access to the printout.”
Advice
Yang says most of her clients prefer TalkingParents over the other co-parenting communication service she has experience with.
“TalkingParents is a more affordable option than OurFamilyWizard,” she explains. “So, most of our clients prefer that version.”
Yang also recommends that if you’re an attorney dealing with parents in a high-conflict situation, you should bring up TalkingParents right away.
“I’ve taken over cases before from other attorneys where there’s a stipulation in place, or there’s an order, but there’s no mention of TalkingParents,” she says. “And the two parties don’t get along, and they’re always fighting. I’m like, ‘why did the last attorney not negotiate a TalkingParents clause into this?’”
Yang says she would advise all attorneys to include TalkingParents as a basic term for these types of cases.
“It will help the client so much and it will help you,” she says. “TalkingParents allows the parties to communicate better. If they don’t communicate, or they’re fighting and arguing, it makes the attorney’s job harder because we end up having to go and communicate for them and mediate for them.”
Overall, TalkingParents makes Yang’s job less complicated.
”Whether your clients are fighting or they’re getting along, it’s always good to have a record of everything,” she finishes. “It just makes everything so much easier.”