When a long-delayed child custody trial was recently fast-tracked in a North Texas divorce court, the KoonsFuller family law team meshed together perfectly to create a successful outcome for the firm’s client.
“Without our special group of divorce and family lawyers, paralegals and clerks,” says attorney Jeff Domen, “this case would have been almost impossible to present in a concise and organized manner.”
Most divorce and family law cases don’t involve this much teamwork, but the circumstances were extraordinary. Jeff took over the case of a dad’s child custody lawsuit to be primary custodial parent of his two young daughters, ages 10 and 14, after two-and-one-half years of scheduling conflicts and delays.
It was a family law jury trial set for January 9, 2012 in a Denton divorce court, and the judge was adamant – there would be no continuances. Complicating the schedule further, Jeff and his wife, Melanie, were expecting their fourth child.
Jeff began the effort by game-planning with partner Sharla Fuller, who mentors associates like Jeff. Then he brainstormed with some of KoonsFuller’s most experienced family law trial lawyers – Ike Vanden Eykel, Rick Robertson, Charla Bradshaw, Julie Crawford and Kevin Fuller.
“All of them added insight and pieces of the puzzle that ultimately led to the win,” Jeff says. While Charla, the Denton managing partner, worked with the client and opposing counsel, paralegals Debby Stone, Lisa Bowles and Lesley McCally organized a file that had grown to 18 boxes over the past couple of years. Then they handed it off to attorney Emily Miskel, law clerk Terra Paul and Debby Stone, who helped Jeff with jury selection.
During the week of trial, all that teamwork was most beneficial. “When I got into a pinch late at night or early in the morning,” Jeff says, “there was always a KF employee to help.” Attorneys Eric Navarrette and Neda Garrett helped with experts, Emily dealt with a research memo from the judge three days into trial, and Charla came ready each morning in case Jeff was unavailable.
And why would he not be available? A few days before the trial started, Jeff’s wife found that she was dilated to three centimeters already. The baby held off until Thursday of trial week, and Jeff was in conference with the judge when he got the call, the baby was coming.
On his way to the hospital, Jeff conferred with Charla by phone about the closing argument. “I knew if the baby came by midnight, I could get enough sleep and be ready to give my final argument, but Charla was ready to take over.”
Baby Bliss arrived at 9:38PM that night. That left Jeff time to prepare for closing statements Friday morning, then he waited for the jury. Attorney Victor Rivera even came to relieve him so he could await the decision at the hospital. Six hours into deliberations, the jury came back 12-0 in favor of dad as the primary custodial parent. This means that both parents will have plenty of access to the children.
Some decisions remain to be made in this case, but the positive effects of teamwork with a firm like KoonsFuller are proven beyond a doubt. “It was a total team effort and a total team victory,” Jeff says. “The ultimate platinum standard in family law representation.”