Sunday, April 24, 2011

Pro Se Divorce Saves You Money

By Adrianna Noton


When a marriage is in trouble, the last resort is usually ending it in divorce. However, this type of legal situation can often be difficult to get fully resolved. Things like custody of the children, joint assets and even child support or alimony payments all must be considered in most cases ad dealt with accordingly. These things are the exact reason why most people immediately hire themselves a lawyer as soon as they decide to dissolve their marriage.

When outside parties do need to become involved there are may different options that can be taken, most of which are very affordable. However, ideally the situation can be solved between the two parties involved without ever having to drag someone else into the matter.

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.

If you decided to start researching whether or not a Pro Se divorce is right for you, the very first things you should ask yourself is whether or not the divorce is uncontested. Even if children or other things are involved you can still file under and uncontested status of both sides are in agreement on how things will be divided.

Uncontested means you won't be able to involve any kind of stocks, investments, retirement accounts or anything of the like. You will not deal with any type of alimony decision in a Pro Se divorce either, so if this is a concern you will need to still hire a lawyer to take of these things.

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.

To recap the things discussed above, Pro Se can be a much more affordable options for many people but you must fall within the realm of qualifying circumstances in order to use this option. The matter must be uncontested by both parties and not involved any thing like child custody or division of property that needs to be sorted out with a judge. You and your spouse should both be in agreement on doing things this way so that neither side retains a lawyer and if anything comes up that you would need a lawyer for than you will have to go ahead and file and get Divorce services the more traditional way.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment