Wave3 Listens 05262022 Family Law Fridays

MICHAEL VANOVER: Welcome back into Wave Listens Live. I’m Michael Vanover filling in for John this week. And I am joined by another John, attorney John Schmidt of the law offices of John Schmidt and Associates. John, how are you?

JOHN SCHMIDT: I’m fine. How you are you doing, Mike?

MICHAEL VANOVER: Good to see you, man. We go way back. So it’s good to see you again. A long time.

JOHN SCHMIDT: First client.

MICHAEL VANOVER: That’s right. A long, long time ago. Well, it’s good — it’s good to have you back. So if you would, for the folks at home that maybe aren’t familiar with you, I know you’ve been on recently promoting a great event that you guys had last weekend —

JOHN SCHMIDT: Yeah.

MICHAEL VANOVER: — let’s give a little background on yourself professionally and — and, you know, exactly what you do.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Well, I have a practice in Shepherdsville, and I practice primarily in Bullitt County and Hardin County. So family law and criminal law are the areas that we primarily focus. Do some, you know, the wills and deeds and that kind of stuff, too. So kind of general practice, I guess, in that regard. But by and large, it’s mostly — it’s mostly family law.

MICHAEL VANOVER: And — and we’ll talk about that. You’re actually — excited to have you as a regular on the program, starting in June, you’re going to be doing Family Law Fridays, where you’re going to be talking about all different things in family law. And there is a lot of different things in family law.

JOHN SCHMIDT: There is.

MICHAEL VANOVER: What — you know, as somebody that does do a lot of different things, you’ve done PI, you’ve done different things over the years, what — what was your draw to family law? Did you see a need there or what’s — what’s kind of the need there?

JOHN SCHMIDT: Well, the — the — the reason why I got into it, my ex-wife said if I didn’t stop traveling, she was going to divorce me. So I stopped traveling and became a divorce lawyer. And then she divorced me. So the irony’s not lost on me. Yeah. So, but there’s a big need and people really — I think it’s important to get through it healthy. And you know, you can do a lot of damage through the process, and the law lends itself to a lot of that. So if I can protect my clients and help them navigate those waters and — and get to the other side with as little trauma as possible, then it’s — it’s best for everybody. It’s best for the kids, if there are kids, it’s best for my client. At the end of the day, you know, we’re people trying to help people. And you know, if I can — if I can make that difference, maybe they’ll show up at my graveside. You know what I’m saying?

MICHAEL VANOVER: Yeah. And that’s not a sales pitch or marketing gimmick. You — you literally mean what you’re saying, and you really do want to help people because people that are going through that — and again, tell me if I’m wrong, I’ve never been an attorney, especially a family law attorney, it’s — they’re going through this at a tough time in their life. They’re in a vulnerable state. They really kind of — they need help. Am I — am I right?

JOHN SCHMIDT: Yeah, no matter what happens. I mean, whether it’s — you know, having your kids taken away from you sucks. If CPS gets involved, it’s just terrible, really traumatic, you know? I know I would go the ends of the earth for my kids. And every –most parents would.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Yeah.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Divorce is — is — it just sucks no matter what happens. So it — it’s just a very difficult, traumatic time for people. So, like I said, if we — if we can get through it with as little trauma as possible, then I think it’s — I think it’s beneficial to everybody. It really is.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Yeah, no doubt. And — and one of the things, you know, you — you talk — you’ve talked to me about this before off camera, but your — your clients, they — they come to you for a variety of reasons, but they really — you really are — are kind of — I don’t — I don’t know the word I’m looking for here, but basically their — their shield, their — their armor as they’re going into, I hate to say battle —

JOHN SCHMIDT: I know.

MICHAEL VANOVER: — but — but it is tough. And you — you have that protective — that protective persona. Would you agree with that? And what — what other things do your clients say?

JOHN SCHMIDT: I would. So you know, I — I just spent six days at a place called Onsite Workshops and — fantastic place. And, you know, there were 35 of us there and — and I — they called me “the protector.” So you know, it’s — it is — it is what I do. You know, I’ll protect my clients and try to do it as — as compassionately and kindly as I can. Sometimes I have to be — you know, I have to be stern. But — but by and large, you know, I think it — we’re pretty successful at it.

MICHAEL VANOVER: So somebody watching right now that may be going through some of this or — or maybe are with someone else and they’re unhappy, whatever — whatever the story may be, if they go to johnschmidtlaw.com or call , what is the – – kind of take me through the process of what — are — are you — you know, how quickly can they get in to see you, to talk to you, to tell you their story? What does that process look like?

JOHN SCHMIDT: Well, it varies. So we charge for consultations so — we had to. Demand was — was pretty high. So we had to start charging for consultations. And we — we did have a lot of people who were just looking for free legal advice and weren’t serious.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Uh-huh.

1. SCHMIDT: So you — you call, you talk to Patty.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Who’s great, by the way.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Patty’s wonderful. She’s my right hand and my left hand.· I love Patty.· Patty Hesse, she’s great. So you know, call, talk to Patty, Patty will set you up with a consultation. We’ll have the consultation, we’ll decide whether we can do business, whether it’s a good fit or not, whether I can take the case or not. There’s some jurisdictions that I’ll — I’ll do things in, some I won’t.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Uh-huh.

JOHN SCHMIDT: So — and then — and then, you know, we’ll do the business part of it, the contract and the — and the fee, and then we get started.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Get you — get you in the door there.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Yeah.

MICHAEL VANOVER: So we’re excited again, as I said earlier, to — to start having you on for Family Law Fridays. Again, I think that — that in many cases, this is an area of the law that is — is neglected from — from a marketing standpoint, from a PR standpoint. What are some of the things you hope to accomplish, you know, from an education standpoint, as you come on with John, you know, on a weekly basis, and just some of the topics that — that people might be able to look forward to hearing about?

JOHN SCHMIDT: Well, if we can — if we can answer some questions —

MICHAEL VANOVER:  Yeah.

JOHN SCHMIDT: — and — and help people kind of reduce their stress —

MICHAEL VANOVER: Yeah.

JOHN SCHMIDT: — a bit, you know, and — and have some guidance, then — then I think that’d be great. Because, you know, like I said, it’s a very stressful process. So a lot of questions that people have, lot of misconceptions.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Right.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Right? So if we can set some of that straight and kind of help people, point them in the right direction, and reduce their temperature a little bit, it’d be good.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Well, and I think we’re going to take some anonymous questions. People, if they do want to write in and ask a question or whatever, we can talk about it. Because here’s what I found out, you know, doing this show for better part of 11 years is, if one person calls in and has a question, there’s another 150 people that have the same question.

JOHN SCHMIDT: That’s right.

MICHAEL VANOVER: You know? And so to your point, if you’re able to lower that stress level in in what is a stressful time in their life, you know, that’s a win-win I feel like.

JOHN SCHMIDT: It is. It absolutely is.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Yeah, no question.

JOHN SCHMIDT: So yeah, if they send in questions, we’ll — we’ll address them, you — you know, you and me or you and John, John and me.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Yeah, sure.

JOHN SCHMIDT: And, you know, we’ll figure it out.

MICHAEL VANOVER:· That’ll be good. That’s right.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Yeah. Yeah.

MICHAEL VANOVER: That’s right. You’ll educate, inform us.· That’s what we’re hoping to do on Family Law Fridays. Real quick, you know, let’s talk about, you touched on it at the beginning, but again, you do a wide list of services, and I’d like to touch on those again.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Sure.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Because there are people watching right now that might say, I like this guy’s demeanor, but does he do this?· Can you — can you recap, you know, the different service lines that you offer?

JOHN SCHMIDT: Sure. So there’s divorce, custody, adoptions, CPS cases. We do criminal defense, and then — and then wills, you know, deeds, estates, business contracts, that kind of thing. So I used to do bankruptcy, but that conflicts now, because I — I’m in Hardin County doing DNA case — sorry, doing CPS cases —

MICHAEL VANOVER: Uh-huh.

JOHN SCHMIDT: — which are called “dependency, neglect, and abuse.”

MICHAEL VANOVER: Okay.

JOHN SCHMIDT: But doing those cases every Wednesday, so I had to stop doing the — the bankruptcy stuff. But I have some really good friends that I trust and who are really good at it. And so I’d be happy to make the referral if you’re not sure who to ask —

MICHAEL VANOVER: Yeah, we can always start there.

JOHN SCHMIDT: — we can always point you in the right direction, sure.

MICHAEL VANOVER: All right, John Schmidt, thank you so much for being here, man.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Yeah, Mike, you’re welcome.

MICHAEL VANOVER: It’s good to see you.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Good seeing you.

MICHAEL VANOVER: Looking forward to having you on the show. I know John is as well. Johnschmidtlaw.com is the website if you want to talk to Patty; as John and I said, she’s great.

JOHN SCHMIDT: Right. Yeah, she’s great.

MICHAEL VANOVER: They will be happy to help.