Divorce - No Lawyers, No Fees

By Adrianna Noton


When a marriage has been falling apart for quite some time, divorce is often the only option left for the couple. Getting a legal separation is a task that sometimes drags on for months and even years though. All things must be dealt with on the legal level, such as who will take custody of the children, how the marital assets will be divided, even the consideration of child support and alimony payments must be dealt with. For these very reasons, most people run out to hire legal representation before doing anything else.

When the instance occurs that bring in outside parties needs to be done you will find that you actually have many different options, most being highly affordable. In some cases, though, the marriage can actually be dissolved without the need for a lawyer for either party involved.

A divorce case, in some instances, can be drug out in court for several years and during this time you will continuously have to pay your lawyer in order to retain their services until the final judgment has been granted.

One specific options most people have they never know about and it is one that can be the cheapest to take in addition to not requiring the services of a lawyer what so ever. You will here this often referred to as a Pro Se divorce or more commonly do-it-yourself. While this is a great options for many people, depending on your situation it may not be the most effective for you.

Among the many factors you must consider before determining if this is the right type of filing status for you, are there any children involved that custody will need to be determined by a judge and are there any marital assets that need to be divided because neither party is in agreement?

What is meant by uncontested is that you won't be having a judge divide assets or debts. This many include things like retirement accounts, investments of any kind and even stocks you have purchased during the marriage. If these things must be dealt with legally than the Pro Se options will not work for you because you will need legal representation to clear these matters up.

If Pro Se is an option you definitely qualify for and it is something you are interested in pursuing the best way to do so is by having your spouse go Pro Se as well, meaning no lawyers are involved on either side. If you are in the military you won't be able to do this though since military separations can become complicated due to laws that protect active duty members during times of deployment. If alimony is something either party will be seeking you will still need to hire a lawyer as well so Pro Se will not work in these situations either.

Just as mentioned above, a Pro Se divorce can be significantly less expensive than most other options you will have as long as you fall within the range of situations that qualifies you to file this way. As long as the legal dissolving of the marriage is uncontested by both parties and there are no complications involved you should be able to get the matter cleared up quickly and efficiently. Make sure not only you but also your spouse are in agreement on the matter at hand so that things go much smoother as well since this will work best without any Divorce services attorneys involved. If either side does end up needing to hire legal council than you should definitely choose a different option for filing.




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