Sword v shield, the Marchman Act and Guardianship

In this video, I want to talk to you about the concept of the shield versus the sword. What do I mean by that? I recently received calls from a man for over six months, telling me that his wife had issues with drug use and mental illness. For whatever reason, he decided not to take action, so he called me, sort of six months between the last call, and said things had gotten worse. That is not a surprise. That’s what happens with substance use and mental illness when they’re not treated. They said he’s thinking about getting divorced and wants to know if he can use either the Marchman Act or the Guardianship process to leverage his wife. He wants to get custody of the kids. That way, he doesn’t have to pay child support.

I said, hold on a second. Do you want to help her? He said he wasn’t sure yet and thought of getting divorced. I told him. I’m not the lawyer that can help him. I explained to him that our work is designed to be a shield.

I’m not here to give you the ability to use what we do as leverage to squeeze somebody in a divorce case or to use what we do to take somebody else’s children away. I don’t do family law, and I’m not here to get in the middle of somebody’s family law issues—divorce and custody battles. That’s not what I do. You may need to call a family lawyer who can certainly counsel you on those matters. We’re here to help people. I may hang up on you if you insist on using what we do to hurt somebody.

While you are the opposing party, I mean we’re standing on the opposite side of the courtroom to somebody who’s having these issues; we’re trying to get a judge to order them into treatment or give you the ability and the authority to get them into treatment. The goal is to help people. That’s what we do. That’s how my phone is answered 24/7. If you need help to get your loved one into treatment, I’m happy to chat with you. On the other hand, if you call me to use us to leverage somebody or to squeeze them, I’m not your guy,

I’m looking to help people; that is our mission here. That’s not going to change. If you need help, go to the websites bakeractattorneys.com drugandalcoholattorneys.com. There are ebooks on both websites that I have written and given away for free. There are videos on both websites where I’ve spent a ton of time, just like in this video. I’m making a video for you to get the information you want for free, and if you’re going to hire us, I’m happy to have a conversation with you.

Thanks for tuning in. See you in the next video.