Hansen Law Group, PS
Craig Jonathan Hansen, Attorney at Law
12000 NE 8th Ste 202 Bellevue, WA 98005-3193
Office: 425-709-6762 | Toll Free: 888-525-6299 | Fax: 425-451-4931
Contact me at: jhansen@hansenlaw.com
What We Do
What We Do (Areas of Practice)
I have experience in a number of different cases, from litigation over real estate problems, to estate litigation, to personal injury cases. I do primarily plaintiff’s work; that is, mostly I represent the person bringing the lawsuit. I have a fair amount of experience in civil lawsuits, and can give you a good idea what your case may be worth, and whether or not it is worth pursuing.
Perhaps 30% of my cases are personal injury cases. I represent the victims in every case; my goal, if I take the case, is to get as much money for you as I can – as fast as I can. I handle some fairly complex cases, and some simple ones. My experience has been that insurance companies will not give you a fair settlement on your own; in fact, most of the time we have to file a lawsuit to get any kind of a fair settlement. But if you have been in an accident, call me; I can give you a fair idea where you come out, but each case depends on the facts.
Most of my cases are in family law: divorces, parenting plans, post-decree problems, custody issues, etc. I carry an average caseload of 35 active cases or more. That means I am in court a lot: I am in court an average of two to three mornings a week on the motions calendar. I practice primarily in both King and Snohomish Counties, and have a lot of experience with both counties’ systems. I know most of the Commissioners. That doesn’t mean I get any breaks; but it does mean I have a pretty good idea of how the Commissioners react, and how to get you the best possible result. Many of my cases are very complex divorces, with many issues; my goal in these is to simplify them as much as possible, to keep the costs down, but still get your desired result. Call me: I can tell you within a few minutes what your options are, and how to get where you want to be. If you and your spouse are not agreed, do not go into a divorce without a plan.
Uncontested Divorces/Flat Fee Divorces
If you need a divorce, and you and your spouse have agreed on what to do, I provide uncontested divorces for a flat fee of $495.00. That includes meeting with one or both of you; doing all of the papers, including any quit claim deeds, QDRO’s, or other forms; walking you through how to file the divorce, etc. My goal is to make the process as smooth – but as complete – as possible. This is a very cheap alternative to fighting the divorce all the way through, and is much more complete, legally and professionally, than buying a packet and muddling through it yourself. It does mean that you have to work things out with your spouse beforehand; in my experience, if you want things to go smoothly, you have to get a complete, signed agreement before you file the divorce. With this choice, you pay the filing fee; you file it; you go down 91 days later and finalize it. We can do this if one person is out of state as well. If this is something you want to explore, call me.
Perhaps half of my divorce cases involve maintenance for one spouse or the other. I have been successful in winning maintenance for both husbands and wives. The length of maintenance is a function of the length of the marriage. The amount of maintenance is a function of how much each person makes; how much debt there is; what each person’s needs are; and other factors. There are no hard rules in determining how much gets paid; there are some rules of thumb the courts use, most of the time. Maintenance is income; it is a tax deduction to the paying spouse and taxable income to the other.
Child support is not income. It is based on the incomes of the parents, and how many children there are. Every case with children involves child support; again, the arguments over child support are very fact-specific, and we need to talk about both parents’ incomes. I do a lot of this work.
All divorces – with children – involve developing a parenting plan. Many times this is uncontested, except for relatively minor issues. If a parenting evaluator needs to be appointed, it is very important to manage that process, and manage what information they get. I do a lot of this kind of work; if you have a parenting plan dispute, you need to call me, or email me. In this state, the mother does not always get the children: the court tends to leave the children with the parent who has been primarily taking care of them. If you are both working, you need to plan this out: call me.
I have several cases where one person – either the custodial spouse or the non-custodial spouse – is out of state. I am very familiar with both the UCCJA and the PKPA, and with fighting divorce and custody cases where the children are in this state, our out of this state. If you have an out-of-state problem, you need to call me: you may want to fight it in this state, and you may not. There are a lot of things to consider, and each case is different.
Prenuptial/Cohabitation Agreements
I draft and review a number of prenuptial and cohabitation agreements. You need one of these if: you have separate property, and you are getting married; if you are buying a house together, and you are not married; you need a cohabitation agreement. I have two cases now, where the parties bought a house together, then split up, and could not agree on how to divide the house up. Both cases are taking almost eighteen months to finish. Both arguments would not have happened if there were a co-habitation agreement. If this applies to you, call me!
Contact me at: jhansen@hansenlaw.com