Finding a good lawyer in Austria

As a foreigner it can be a daunting task to find a good lawyer when you do not have yet the proper contacts to point you in the right direction.

In my case, as I have written in a previous post, my first lawyer was dishonest and only interested in money. When I eventually fired her, i decided to go back to the "Beratungsstelle für Frauen" for advice. They directed me to two main lawyers who work majorly to help women in situations such as mine. The recommendations I got were:

1. Dr. Helene Klaar - Prinz Eugen-Straße 34, 1040 Wien.
Tel : 015050462
E-mail: office@ra-klaar-marschall.at
(A tough, self proclaimed feminist, very well known in Austria for advocating women's rights)

2. Dr. Christine Kolbitsch - Taborstraße 10, 1020 Wien.
Website: www.vana.cc
Tel: 01214771030
E-mail: kolbitsch@vana.cc
( A tough lawyer as well fighting for women, and my current law firm)

I chose Dr. Kolbitsch's law firm for the simple reason that I got an appointment much faster at her law firm and was very impressed at how the lawyer dissected my case in a few minutes. The lawyer I speak of in this case is Mag. Sonja Aziz, whom I find absolutely brilliant, and possesses
a very high sense of deductive reasoning.

Besides the obvious advantage of fighting for women's rights, I also found it a major advantage that Dr. Kolbitsch's law firm generally doesn't charge the women recommended via the Beratungsstelle any fees for phone calls made to the court or with the client. It doesn't sound like much, but it is when you consider that you normally pay phone charges to the lawyer by the minute. I have also found it to be in a sense therapeutic when I can call my lawyer to discuss any developments in the case, and basically pour my heart out to the one person who understands what I am going through just about as much as I do.

On reading my case files, Mag Aziz quickly deducted that my problem was that I had been making several small irrelevant arguments in my case when the main argument was obviously a breakdown in communication, which is the one main reason, besides violence and drug addiction, that child custody can be awarded to one parent in Austria. Our first strategy, therefore, would be to put all the arguments together and direct them into one cohesive appeal showing inability of effective communication, stemming from him, as the reason I was seeking sole custody. The 13 page document that was the result of this effort looked like it just might work.

The failure of joint custody

For a marriage that ends amicably, with both parties still able to maintain some semblance of communication, joint custody could work. However for an ugly divorce like we had, I think imposing joint custody on the parents does far more harm than good. The argument from the Austrian court system is that it is in the best interest of the child to maintain joint custody, regardless of the prevailing circumstances. I still can't, for the life of me, understand how it can be in the best interests of the child when the parents cannot even stand the sight of each other.

In my case the first disagreement came about when I decided to vaccinate the child and he didn't. He filed a case against me at the jugendamt to stop me. We had to start having weekly sessions from then to discuss this "problem". For someone as extroverted as he is, and me being rather introverted ad not speaking German well, he dominated the meetings, accused and basically drove the conversation without the social worker making any effort to stop him. After the a couple of sessions ended with no clear consensus, I simply called the social worker and asked her what to do concerning vaccination, and she told me to go ahead with it, because despite having joint custody, both parents are still allowed to make decisions independently if they feel it's in the best interest of the child. (Shaking my head at this point). We ended wasting a year at the jugendamt doing some kind of "mediation", discussing hot topic issues like I left my widows open and the child might fall out, I took her to kindergarten when she suffered a runny nose, and other similar stupidity. It got so bad  to the point where my ex dominated the meetings that even the social worker squeeze in a word edgewise when my ex began his soliloquys. She decidedly invented a "game" where she put a stuffed animal infront of him when he needed to say something and when she took it away he had to stop. That's what my life was reduced to. I told her over and over that this was psychopathic behaviour he was exhibiting, and it was part of the reason I left the marriage, but the show went on.

In the meantime he tried to file for sole custody in court but this was ignored.

I also mentioned to the jugendamt that he suffered from ADHS and  apparently it was serious enough that he couldn't hold employment and was therefore paid unemployment money. In my opinion if someone is sick enough not to be able to hold a job, raising a child, which is one of the most important jobs, he certainly cannot perform it satisfactorily. The answer I got was that even psychopaths can raise children, so this argument was invalid. I also told the social worker  that it was clear my ex was manipulating the child against me from the things she began saying to me. This was all ignored.

At the end of one year I was so fed up because I felt they tried to favor him although they saw that mediation hadn't worked due to him particularly, so I filed in court for sole custody and told them I would not sit in a joint mediation anymore. I asked the social worker to write her recommendation to the court and let go of the case. Their recommendation was simply that we were counter-accusing each other and that the best solution would be to maintain joint custody but change the contact from daily basis to him getting every second weekend Friday to Monday morning in kindergarten and one overnight stay during the week he doesn't have the child. The holidays would also be split 50/50.

With the case still in court, he accused me again at jugendamt of endangering the child's welfare for whatever reason. We got a new social worker as the old one had left (possibly fired for being lousy at her job) and this time it turned out to be  a man, something my ex had been constantly demanding, claiming bias against him by women. I went in for one solo session with this social worker (Herr. Mondschein) and he simply told me in my case there had been injustice served, i was basically a single mother almost paying everything for the child and subjected to bullying for one year from my ex-husband. He told me he didn't see the need why I should be subjected to this any further and he would immediately close the case and ask that my ex begin to pay child support immediately. (I had also complained about thus to the previous social worker but she shut me down and told me that at jugendamt they don't discuss money, and if this is a issue  I should take it to court. I did. Later on I found out they do handle this themselves in a different department.

The entire case was now in court and this time round I had a lawyer.

Life in the "frauenhaus" (Women's Shelter) in Austria

To state that the Frauenhaus was a great help, is an understatement. Right at the entrance the feeling of security is assured. On ringing the doorbell and giving your name, you must look into a security camera to prove your identity. Once you go through the first door, there is a second door through which you can go through after a second security check. Th i is helpful in keeping out vindictive fathers who I was told had tried to exact revenge in the past.

Once inside you are welcomed into a wonderful apartment block, much like any other in Austria.

I got a 45sqm apartment to myself, a kitchen that was constantly stocked with healthy fresh food,  diapers, clothes for the child (and for myself if I had wanted) and finally PEACE! This feeling can only be well understood by a person who has had the misfortune of experiencing how suffocating a bad marriage can be. 

At the frauenhaus I also had a dedicated social worker, a wonderful lady called Elizabeth, and we had an in-house psychologist who would help deal with the stress we had gone through. 

In addition to all this we had evening  activities that brought the mother's and children together, things that might sound trivial, but for many in our situation brought about the relief of not being totally alone in your situation.

The Frauenhaus was a wonderfully positive experience for me and I would advice any woman going through a tough time not to hesitate to seek this refuge.