Even if you consider yourself an “average joe”, you may benefit from the advice of a public relations adviser during divorce. Their services can range from counseling on etiquette do’s and don’ts in the workplace to actually fielding calls from relations and friends about the divorce proceedings.

How useful is hiring a public relations expert during a divorce? Extremely useful, according to the people who have hired them. Much of the damning testimony used in court proceedings in the case of uglier divorces has come from friends and family who have discussed the situation with one or both spouses. Hiring a public relations adviser to field all questions is a polite way to deal with people who won’t take “I don’t want to talk about it” for an answer.

Public relations experts are usually contracted by wealthier families during divorce proceedings. Often, demands by the less well-off spouse are ridiculed in the press, as in the case of Hanover’s request for canine support in the amount of $1140.00 per month from Rudy Giuliani. It is up to a public relations expert to show the public how such requests are reasonable. In Hanover’s case, the dog was elderly, meaning high vet bills and the necessity to walk the dog several times a day in New York, where both dog walkers and vets are expensive. (1)

When involved in a divorce proceeding, the media specialist must consult with both the client and the law firm that the client is employing to ensure that everyone is on the same page. It is also important to give the lawyer complete control over the information that the media specialist is allowed to share, rather than the client. The client may actually allow more information to be shared than the lawyer may think is appropriate. Ideally, the media specialist will be directly employed by the lawyer rather than the client in order to reinforce this relationship.

Media specialists usually shepherd writers and journalists through trial proceedings, explaining relationships to the media and making sure that they understand the information correctly. (2) Reporters make mistakes all the time due to a need to go to press quickly and this can reflect very badly on either spouse; it may even further complicate divorce proceedings. Message management is intensely important.

If you are involved in a particularly messy divorce, you may want to ask your legal professional if they think that a media relations expert should be involved. Chances are good that your lawyer already has a relationship with such an individual and will be able to bring them on if they think it is appropriate to do so. Always go with the advice of your lawyer, and do not hire such a professional on your own.

2- p. 32-33
Courting the media: public relations for the accused and the accuser
By Margaret A. Mackenzie
Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007