divorce help : The Best and Worst Kinds of Help
Since I founded Nolo Press in 1971 with the first edition of How to Do Your Own Divorce, millions of people have successfully done their own divorces without retaining lawyers. Doing your own divorce does not mean you can't get help, but there is a big difference in the kinds of help that are available.
Friends, relatives and "common knowledge" are the worst and most expensive sources of legal advice. Use friends for moral support, but when they give you advice, just say, "thank you," but do not take it seriously without checking with a reliable source. If you didn't get it from a current Nolo book or a family law specialist attorney, don't trust it! Just because you like or trust someone doesn't make them right. Bad advice can cost you dearly—perhaps for the rest of your life.
Lawyers who specialize in divorce know a lot, but because of the way the system works and the way lawyers work, they will almost certainly cause you unnecessary conflict and expense. Do not retain an attorney unless there's no other choice. Getting information and advice from attorneys is tricky, too, because they don't want to help you help yourself; they want to take your case and represent you.
Attorneys will frequently do the first interview for a fairly small fee, but too often they spend that time convincing you that you need them to handle your case. Hourly rates can run over $400, but $190 - $250 per hour is average. Most attorneys require a retainer, about $5,000 is typical, but the amount doesn't matter because the final bill will almost certainly be much higher. Few attorneys will give a fixed figure for the whole job. You are doing very well if you end up spending less than $2,500 per spouse on the simplest case; the average in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California when both spouses are represented is over $18,000 per spouse!
By Ed Sherman
Friends, relatives and "common knowledge" are the worst and most expensive sources of legal advice. Use friends for moral support, but when they give you advice, just say, "thank you," but do not take it seriously without checking with a reliable source. If you didn't get it from a current Nolo book or a family law specialist attorney, don't trust it! Just because you like or trust someone doesn't make them right. Bad advice can cost you dearly—perhaps for the rest of your life.
Lawyers who specialize in divorce know a lot, but because of the way the system works and the way lawyers work, they will almost certainly cause you unnecessary conflict and expense. Do not retain an attorney unless there's no other choice. Getting information and advice from attorneys is tricky, too, because they don't want to help you help yourself; they want to take your case and represent you.
Attorneys will frequently do the first interview for a fairly small fee, but too often they spend that time convincing you that you need them to handle your case. Hourly rates can run over $400, but $190 - $250 per hour is average. Most attorneys require a retainer, about $5,000 is typical, but the amount doesn't matter because the final bill will almost certainly be much higher. Few attorneys will give a fixed figure for the whole job. You are doing very well if you end up spending less than $2,500 per spouse on the simplest case; the average in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California when both spouses are represented is over $18,000 per spouse!
By Ed Sherman
