Use Online Divorce Whenever You Can
Online divorce is always a wise choice for an uncontested divorce where the parties are in agreement, where there is not a large marital estate, where there are no complex legal issues and where there is no domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence.
Avoid Unlicensed Online Divorce Mills
The whole point of online divorce is to keep your cost down. However, if you pay $350-$1100 to an unregulated non-lawyer online divorce mill and you end up paying for their mistakes forever, that’s NOT a cheap divorce.
BTW, the “complete fee” claimed at many of these online divorce mills is $139-$299 BUT most also have hidden “storage fees” of $40 per month. They hit your credit card every month. Also, they are aggressive up-sellers of “premium” packages at $199+. The REAL total fee of many of these divorce mills in a California uncontested divorce can easily reach $350-$1100.
Avoid Traditional California Divorce Lawyer Churners and Grinders
Traditional California divorce lawyers want to charge you a $3500-$7500+ retainer fee and get rid of that retainer as fast as possible to get you onto the $300-$450 billable hour treadmill.
That’s because they don’t know what else to do. Churning through client money is the only thing they’ve ever done. They have not been among the very few competitive California divorce lawyers who have adopted online divorce as an additional service offering.
Traditional California divorce lawyers will trick you into hiring them by scaring the heck out of you on some terrible potential event that could happen in your case but almost certainly won’t.
Then, after they’ve scared your money out of you, you have to disclose your assets and debts to them as part of the California divorce disclosure process. So that California divorce lawyer knows EXACTLY what cash and assets you’ve got as well as your credit card balances.
All they need to do from that point is churn. Requests for Orders, Discovery Requests, Discovery Responses, Hearings, Interrogatories, Postponements, Trial Briefs, etc., etc. until your cash and assets are gone.
When your traditional California divorce lawyer files your Petition, s/he will also file a Request For Orders, whether that is needed in your case or not. A Request For Order requires a court hearing. The purpose of filing a Request For Order is to scare your spouse into getting a traditional California divorce lawyer too.
Once your spouse also has a lawyer , the 2 lawyers will do their dance until neither one of you has cash or credit left. That will involve all kinds of hearings, postponements, interrogatories, requests for disclosure, responses to requests for disclosures, tec., etc.
Then, after your money is gone and your spouse’s money is gone (at $450 per hour), they’ll recommend that you settle your case. Then they’ll tell you what a great job they did for you.
Don’t fall for this nonsense. There are times when you will need such lawyers (and if your simple uncontested blows up, you will need such lawyers), but not in a simple uncontested California divorce.
Avoid unnecessary and dishonest traditional California divorce lawyer churners. If you have an uncontested California divorce, you should know your cost up front.
Get the Best of Both Worlds
Hire a savvy, competitive local California divorce lawyer who offers online divorce to protect your legal and economic interests and safeguard you from the high risks of unregulated online divorce mills and dishonest traditional divorce lawyer churners.
You get all of the protection of using a California divorce lawyer at a fraction of the price of the dishonest traditional California divorce lawyer churners.
And if any problem does arise, or even if your case completely blows up, you already have a California divorce lawyer on your team.
You only use your California divorce lawyer when you need your California divorce lawyer. And you only pay for services you need. You do not overpay just because something MIGHT go wrong.
