Duncan Family Law Marielle Duncan, Attorney · Spokane, Washington
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You don’t have to
figure this out tonight.

I’m Marielle Duncan. I’ve practiced family law in Spokane on my own for twenty years: divorce, custody, child support, and adoption. If something just landed on your kitchen table, start here.

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A wooden desk by a window in morning light: a yellow legal pad and pen, a mug of coffee, a plant, a box of tissues, and an empty chair waiting on the near side.

If you were handed papers this week

Most people who call me in the first few days ask the same three things. Here are the honest answers.

  1. Yes, there’s a deadline. No, it isn’t tomorrow.

    In Washington you usually have 20 days to file a written response if you were handed the papers in this state, and 60 days if you were served somewhere else. Write down the date you were served. That date is the one that counts.

  2. Nothing is decided yet.

    Papers are one person’s request. They aren’t a ruling. In a Washington divorce there’s a 90-day minimum before anything can be final, even when both people agree on everything, and most cases take longer than that.

  3. Keep your ordinary life ordinary.

    Keep paying the bills you’ve been paying. Keep the kids’ routine. Don’t move money, don’t sign anything new, and don’t post about it. None of that is legal strategy. It’s just what keeps your options open until we’ve talked.

More on what happens in a divorce

Four kinds of work. That’s all I do.

It’s just me. That’s the point.

When you call this office, you’re calling me. I’m the one who reads your papers, the one who calls you back, and the one who stands next to you in court. There’s no handoff to someone you’ve never met.

I’ll tell you what I think, including when I think a fight isn’t worth what it will cost you, in money or in years. I’ll tell you what things will likely cost before you spend it. And I’ll explain every step before it happens, so nothing arrives in your mailbox as a surprise.

What I won’t do is promise you a result. Nobody honest can. A judge decides what a judge decides, and the other side gets a say too. What I can promise is that you’ll understand where you stand at every point, and that you won’t be going through it alone.

  • Twenty years practicing family law in Spokane
  • One attorney, from the first call to the final order
  • Calls returned by the end of the next business day

People usually sit down across from me and apologize for crying. You don’t need to. You’re having a normal reaction to one of the hardest things that happens to a person. My job is to take the part of this that’s legal off your shoulders, explain it in plain words, and carry it with you until it’s done.

Marielle Duncan
More about me

One honest note: what you read here is meant to help you understand what you’re facing. It isn’t advice about your situation, and reading it doesn’t make me your lawyer. That happens when we sit down, talk through your case, and both agree I’m the right person for it.

When you’re ready, call.

You don’t need to have your thoughts organized, and you don’t need to know what to ask. Tell me what happened and when, and I’ll take it from there. first meeting: how long it is and what it costs

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