The Best Guide To Divorse Agreements

For many divorcing couples seeking to save a little money on their divorce, it's important what service they will use to get ready their divorce papers. With the modern technology available, there are plenty of services out there for the preparation of "uncontested" divorces, and it's vital to have as much knowledge as is possible before committing to anyone of these services.

A popular choice of divorce service for many individuals is to use an "online" service. The upside is the fact that they can be usually very cost-effective. The downside is the fact that you basically do all the work. Sure, you've got access to their proprietary forms software, but it really is you who is basically filling out your own forms, downloading, and printing them, to file and serve yourself. This kind of service is affordable, but you are essentially paying a third party for the honor of preparing your own divorce forms with no legal advice. If something is awry with your divorce papers as well as the court rejects them, it may cost you more in time and aggravation that you should correct them than it will have cost to have used another sort of service to do it right within the first place.

Another divorce service option will be the "do it yourself" approach. Many divorcing people work with a self-help book, grab a cup of coffee, and start filling out their own papers. While the books usually give general information, divorces are typically state specific and also the book should at a minimum be tailored to the state in which the divorce is taking place. Furthermore, the counties in a state do differ somewhat in their procedures, and you may find it quite frustrating to get your papers to match with the local way of doing things despite the fact that you might be using the state-wide forms. Again, with this service option, you are doing all the work but paying nothing out of pocket (and giving yourself a legal education at the same time).

As a step away from the "do it yourself" approach, many people try using a legal assistant divorce service. In California, these people are called "legal document assistants" and are regulated under Business and Professions Code section 6400 et seq. As the freelance legal assistants may call themselves other names, such as a divorce assistant or a divorce paralegal, whenever they are a person other than a lawyer offering forms preparation services for a fee, they can be subject to the code. When selecting a legal document assistant it's important to ensure these people are truly licensed and regulation compliant. Many are not compliant with the law as well as have not met even the minimum educational requirements or possess the state mandated consumer protections in area to perform as legal document assistants. Even if you have a licensed legal document assistant, they often (unwittingly or not) give legal advice, which will be the unlicensed practice of law, a crime. It is natural to seek advice during a divorce and many more often than not, a legal document assistant will succumb to the temptation by providing the advice, though they might say it really is just "friendly" advice and not "legal" advice (as if the label made a difference). Legal document assistants are supposed to fill out the forms in accordance with your direction. No more and no less. Legal advice is one thing they can not give, and also the good ones will strictly adhere to that policy and refer you out to an attorney if necessary. Legal assistants usually do the legwork for you by taking care of filing the documents and serving the papers (if necessary), either themselves or through another service like process server.

A last divorce service option that parties may consider is using a genuine attorney to prepare the parties' uncontested divorce papers. After all, a big included in the cost of divorce will be the actual litigation and not the specific form filling. In the event the parties contemplate a friendly settlement and also have no worries about each others' honesty and accuracy regarding financial disclosures, then an "attorney document preparer" may be a cost effective option for an uncontested divorce procedures. With the attorney preparing the divorce papers, one need not be worried about the unlicensed practice of law. On top of that, a lawyer document preparer should understand the law and can also draft the parties' marital settlement agreement in accordance with current divorce law. Many attorneys offer document preparation only services for prices comparable to or a little more than what you might pay a legal document preparer. A lawyer must also be able to do all of the legwork in filing and serving the documents in order that the parties should have to go to court.

Out of all of the above divorce service options, having an attorney preparing your divorce documents can be the most cost effective solution, as you should have the best quality of work with only a slight rise in price. Though not all attorneys shall offer this service, many do.