Blog Post

A Little Bit of Burnout

Posted by: Felissa M. Garcia
April 14, 2009
Topic: A Day in the Life of a Divorce and Family Law Attorney

Every so often during the year, I get to a point where I am just feeling burned out. I'm not sure why it happens, but sure as...well, it sure happens. Thankfully I am blessed with the most wonderful Legal Staff anybody could possibly have. Donna Trujillo Dodd and Matt Torres have been helping cover some of my hearings that I have been unable to attend because of NM Court of Appeals Deadlines I have and because I have been sick the last couple of days. The hearings have gone well and I'm just thankful to have such talented lawyers working at The Family Law Firm. Today's cases involved NM Child Custody and visitation, and the other case involved New Mexico Child Support issues. As I said, both hearings went well, except that on the custody case, I'm just so amazed that even though the Mom goes into Court and ADMITS that she gets high every day, the Judge is still trying to find ways to give her MORE visitation. Come ON!!!! What the heck, I just don't understand that one. Sure, I feel bad that the mom has a drug habit but to put the child in danger by really trying to find any way possible for her to get unsupervised visitation is just amazing to me.

I had to leave the office early today because I think I have a flu but I left the ship in excellent hands. Jacob Olsen is our new Firm Administrator and he is doing an awesome job. He has everything and everybody in line and the way things should be. He's all caught up on all the piles of work that were on his desk when he first started as Firm Administrator and everybody at the Firm loves having him in that job.

This is a slow week for me in terms of hearings. But I do have several appointments and I am writing several briefs on some legal issues that need to be resolved by the Court. I may upload one brief in particular that you may find interesting. It's a case regarding conflict of laws between an Ontario, Canada Order and the New Mexico Family Court Orders. Should be very interesting.

I'll give you updates as they come along. As you can tell, I'm doing more managing of the Firm these days than taking on many cases. Which is my objective. I have lowered my own caseload to less than 10 clients and that is how I intend to keep it. The other lawyers in the Firm each have about 50-75 cases each so I think it's time to hire another lawyer. We'll see. Hiring good lawyers is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in managing the Law Firm. If and when it happens, you'll be the first to know. Have a great week. Felissa M. Garcia