Family Law
Divorce, custody disputes-child support. None of these topics is pleasant or easy to speak about, let alone hire a lawyer to help sort through and resolve. Ms. Eardley has dealt with these issues, by choice, since her time as a law student. She considers the disputes related to these core experiences of everyday life as important types of litigation. The extreme emotions and hard truths that are the components of such cases make it imperative that a lawyer knows the boundaries between advocacy and compassion. Ms. Eardley addresses her domestic relations/family law cases as she does all her trial work. The parties need a resolution of their disagreements, and the court is there to give them that if they cannot resolve it on their own. Divorce court is not a place for unnecessary theatrics or angry exchanges. As an attorney who has handled many such matters since she began her practice in 1991, she knows full well that for most clients, a divorce is probably the first encounter they have had with the legal system. The cost, the time and the basic steps involved are foreign to anyone facing divorce or custody matters. Ms. Eardley assists her clients best by keeping abreast of this rapidly changing field of the law, and by knowing when seeking the court’s intervention is necessary.
Automobile and Premises Negligence
Michigan is one of the toughest places in the nation right now for people who have been injured by someone else’s negligence. Present law makes it nigh impossible for a person badly hurt by another driver’s negligence to recover the money needed to make them whole. Even no-fault insurance carriers fight and refuse to pay very obviously needed medical expenses. Tenants who slip and fall at their apartment complex, or people who break an ankle walking through a parking lot or store expect that those who caused their severe injury to make it right. Most often, the insurance companies for the wrongdoer just ignore the injured victims as long as possible, hoping they will go away, or just pay their medical and wage loss themselves. Ms. Eardley has handled dozens of such cases, and at one time, handled them for the defense side. She knows well the games played by carriers in trying to wait out the injured people, or even hide the rights her clients have. Ms. Eardley is proud to pursue such cases for people who have been seriously hurt through no fault of their own, and make the insurance companies pay for the benefits due for the premiums their customers pay.