Cautions: Self-Divorce And Divorce Law
If your divorce is likely to be quite simple, then it's very possible you can handle it yourself. But in all cases, you do need to know enough of the divorce law in your state to be sure that you aren't going to run into problems you didn't foresee. You can download online divorce materials, and for most of them, the websites will point out the highlights of the requirements for the state you live in. However, if you're doing so without a lawyer, be aware you're running the risk of encountering some problem that he or she might have known about, but about which you were unaware.
Some problems you encounter may have less to do with the law of divorce than with simple errors, yet the court may not make that distinction, or make allowances for your amateur status. Most courts are required to treat you the same way they'd treat a qualified attorney, and assume you know the same law they do. Then what happens if you fill in the wrong blank in your divorce documents, or aren't aware of all documents you're required to file and therefore miss a filing, or if you don't deal with the divorce and custody issues in a way that sets the judge's mind at ease? You could end up with a detrimental judgment, or the judge may insist you get an attorney after all.
You might think the divorce law that covers things like the division of property is fairly straightforward. For many of your assets, that may be the case. But something like retirement plans can get very complicated indeed. For example, some defined benefit plans are not divisible, so a financial advisor would have to determine the value of the benefits, to factor into your property distribution. And divisible plans need a special order, a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, to divide them. This gets so complicated that in fact you do need a lawyer to do it. So you may not be able to avoid a divorce lawyer after all.
Divorce law in all states does allow you to handle the divorce by yourself if that's what you really want to do. But the law may still not be your friend if the divorce papers and other matters aren't handled as though you were a professional attorney. You will need to do a lot of research into the law before you start, and you really have to be sure you're ready for all the consequences if you do go it alone.
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Filed under Avoid Divorce, marriage problems, news by on Mar 20th, 2010.