Thoma, Mark A.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF LAW OFFICE

The Law Office of Donald E. Teller, Jr. is a Northeast Tarrant County law firm focused on divorce and all other family law matters, including child custody, child support, property division, property characterization, reimbursement, alimony, marital torts, decree modifications, paternity, interstate and Texas terminations and adoptions, pre and post marital agreements, restraining orders, protective orders, and child protective services cases. While able to smoothly handle the less complex family law matters, the firm's cases normally involve more complex, emotionally-charged issues.

About Our Attorney

Donald E. Teller, Jr. has an extensive legal and business background, including his Juris Doctor and Masters in Business Administration degrees from Southern Methodist University. After working as a family law attorney for a litigation firm, in 1998 he opened his own law practice in Tarrant County. Mr. Teller has experienced the family litigation process not only as an attorney and a visiting associate judge, but more importantly as a litigant. He often knows from firsthand experience what his clients are going through because he has been in a similar situation. Please visit the Attorney Profile section for detailed information about Mr. Teller's background and experience.

Our Mission

Our mission is to proactively address our clients' concerns and lead them through the family law procedural maze as efficiently and effectively as possible.

How We Accomplish Our Mission

Rather than applying the same approach to every situation, the Law Office of Donald E. Teller, Jr., P.C. combines varied legal approaches with direct client involvement and technological advances to customize a legal strategy for each case.

The firm resolves cases by employing different legal avenues as needed to suit our clients' needs, including litigation, mediation, collaborative law, and/or negotiation.

Litigation - Family law litigation remains the most often used approach to resolve family law cases. When agreement between parties is not possible using mediation, collaborative law or negotiation, litigation is the only method left to resolve the dispute. We have handled hundreds of litigation cases for our clients. Because litigation can be expensive, the firm establishes an overall litigation strategy and assesses the costs vs. benefits of each aspect of the litigation process.

Mediation - Mediation involves utilizing a third party, frequently but not always an attorney, to facilitate an agreement when one may not otherwise be possible. We zealously represent our clients at the mediation, and impress upon the mediator and the other party the importance of our client's concerns in order to arrive at a mediated solution most advantageous to our client.

Collaborative Law - Collaborative law is the newest family law resolution process that takes the matter out of the court system and enhances the ability of the client to control their own destiny. Our firm represents the clients' interests, but also addresses the needs and concerns of the other parties in order to arrive at a "win - win" solution. Collaborative law uses a highly structured process, and attorneys trained in the process, to achieve the result. This firm is trained in collaborative law and works with our clients through the collaborative law roadmap.

Negotiation - Some level of negotiation occurs in most family law cases. We prioritize our clients' concerns in order to ensure that the issues most important to the client are realized. Negotiation often involves utilizing "leverage" to your advantage. Our firm pinpoints the "leverage" in each situation and uses it to achieve a superior negotiated settlement.

While cognizant of the standards Texas family law courts frequently use, we will deviate from those terms when possible to provide a better client solution. The "every other weekend" possession is often not best for children when the detailed lives of the parents is reviewed. We toss out the "cookie cutter" visitation schedule and customize a visitation schedule to fit our clients' needs.

While some firms prefer less client interaction, we believe more client involvement increases case efficiency and ensures that our clients' needs are met. We assign experienced legal assistants to each matter to increase client - firm communication. We work with our clients to determine their priorities and a litigation strategy that analyzes the costs and benefits. We keep our clients informed and are accessible to promptly answer questions and address issues that come up throughout the process.

The use of integrated legal technology solutions further enhances our ability to meet our clients' needs and has the added benefit of keeping costs down for our clients. We are one of the few family law firms to use case management and document management litigation tools to increase the effective management of all of our cases. Document assembly software assists with the preparation and filing of court documents. Computerized research tools increase our use of legal precedents, and our use of investigative tools helps us unearth facts that otherwise may go unnoticed.

Customized solutions and integrated technology achieve the best results for our clients. However, despite all the advances, law firms are still made up of legal professionals - attorneys and legal assistants. All of our legal assistants have numerous years of experience and have assisted many clients through the years.