Out with the Old, In with the New

Tonight's Blog Post is by Associate, Jeremy Abernathy.  Click Here to learn more about Jeremy.

Our firm is located in the heart of the Marietta Square.  Our office has great views.  I see the hustle and bustle of city life.  I see Glover Park and witness the flowers blooming in Spring.

I also hear the racket from the Marietta City construction taking place.  The noise is loud, pounding, and continuous.  Recently, however, the usual banging that I hear had a different ring to it.  The noise was high- pitched and screeching- comparable to a cat slowing etching their claws into a chalkboard.

I got up and peered out the window.  I noticed long sharp rails being yanked from about four feet below the surface (my measuring point was a 6 foot tall man whose head was about two feet above the pavement).

I called my fellow associate, Elizabeth Marum, to take a look. She, immediately suspected that the objects were trolley rails. (Elizabeth has vast miscellaneous knowledge!)

Mr. Manely, nearby as we were briefing and updating him on cases and hearings, confirmed Elizabeth’s suspicion and even provided the history of the trolley rails. (In the early 1900's the Atlanta trolley system extended to Marietta and the trolley turned around by circling the park.)

This journey back in time reminded me of horror stories I have heard about the history of Marietta regarding racial and religious intolerance.   I must say that it is gratifying to see Marietta in it’s current state.  I see all races and nationalities entering in different restaurants, movie theaters, and other establishments.  I see diversity embraced.  I see change welcomed.

It’s now one week later and I notice that the large hole from which the trolley lines were being pulled has been patched up.  Cars pass over the hard, re-surfaced planes covering the holes.

Family law is like Marietta construction and Marietta history in this respect.   The old wounds between opposing parties are deep and bruising (sometimes literally).  The parties have contentious histories.  The sundry horror stories outnumber the words in a Harry Potter or New Moon novel.  Thus, construction (or reconstruction) is necessary.

As counsel for our clients, we must “do construction” in our clients’ lives.  After the  excavation of past wounds (the post-filing, pre-trial discovery process), we must lay the road for productive, fruitful travel (a successful settlement agreement or judicial decision).

At The Manely Firm P.C. we take pride in getting our clients off to the best start possible on their new life journeys. We care about the strategic, intelligent “re-paving” we do for our clients’ futures.  We welcome re-constructing the “messy family law issues.”