More and more spouses choose not to hire an attorney for their divorce. Why? Cost, speed, publicity, and control.
Cost: It’s expensive to hire attorneys – especially if the case goes to trial or a long way into litigation.
Speed: if you go down divorce court road, you’re looking at a protracted process that could last years.
Publicity: court actions are generally public, and there’s more of chance of publicity if a matter proceeds to trial. Do you want your divorce on public display (not that anyone really cares unless you’re a celebrity)?
Control: When a Court decides your case, you’re handing the decision-making to the Court.
I wish to add a disclaimer here about what I mean by getting a divorce without an attorney. I don’t mean not getting legal advice. What I mean is hiring a litigation lawyer that will hammer your case into trial. It’s always a good idea to get some basic legal advice in the form of a legal opinion before you negotiate your divorce. It’s good to know where you stand so you aren’t vulnerable to a terrible divorce deal.
That said, deciding not hiring a lawyer (for a full blown trial) requires cooperation between spouses. If cooperation is possible, then the steps that they can take for resolving the legal issues in their separation and divorce are as follows:
1. Spouses can try to negotiate terms on their own. This happens a lot in amicable divorces. If you stave of litigation disaster at this stage, that is an excellent result. Wrapping it up is simply a matter of completing the paperwork. Be sure to get the terms in writing in an agreement.
2. Hire a divorce mediator: The best one can hope for other than reconciliation is a negotiated resolution. This can be achieved by hiring a divorce mediator. If mediation succeeds, the divorce mediator can prepare an agreement so the terms are recorded.
3. Each spouse hires an attorney but each instructs the attorney to focus on negotiation. Perhaps another mediation is attempted with lawyers involved.
4. If prolonged negotiation doesn’t work, you can try a mini-trial with an arbitrator who will decide the case (if available in your jurisdiction). It’s like mediation except the mediator makes a decision. You can agree that the decision is binding or not before-hand. Arbitration is a quicker and cheaper resolution than court. Lawyers aren’t necessarily required to represent you. However, if the other side has a lawyer, you probably want one as well. You’ll need to hire a lawyer to set this up in most cases.
5. If after all this you still have no resolution, then you may simply have to put on the trial gloves and go let a court decide. When this happens you no longer have any control in the outcome.
Please keep in mind that you can talk to a lawyer at any time if you’re at all unsure about what your legal rights are. Lawyers can parachute into the divorce process at any point.
No comments yet.