There are several reasons for hiring an attorney instead of a DIY divorce. The following are the 11 most important reasons to demonstrate why you should not handle your own divorce:
1. Missing Out on Expert Advice:
When you handle your own divorce, you can miss out on extremely helpful and often necessary advice from an expert who knows what is normal and fair and what is not normal and not fair. There are sometimes legal technical issues that only a trained, experienced attorney knows how to handle such as residency requirements in a Georgia divorce case, property distribution, best interest of the child(ren) parenting plans, calculating proper child support, and proper evidence that can be used to support your claims in the divorce process
2. Increased Stress:
Without help from a Georgia divorce lawyer, you can experience increased stress concerning whether your divorce is going smoothly and whether you have gotten all of the required documents and other materials together in a timely manner. There is also the concern of finding out later you missed some things or could have done some things to save you from future headaches.
3. Potential Mistakes:
Filing and dealing with divorce in Georgia is a complicated process with precise steps at certain points and specific ways those steps are carried out for different situations, and it requires gathering evidence and presenting a case that is admissible before a judge to review. When you deal with your divorce without the help of a divorce attorney, you could make mistakes that will end up costing you both financially and emotionally in the long run or affecting your children more than needed if you have them.
4. May Not Have a Clear and Binding Agreement:
Some spouses are able to come to an agreement with one another about certain divorce terms, but without assistance from a Georgia divorce lawyer, such agreements may not be binding and your spouse may not be held accountable in the future to the agreement. To ensure that you have a binding agreement, you should always work with an experienced divorce attorney in Georgia.
5. May Experience Delays:
Timeliness is key to many divorce cases, and spouses often want to get through the process as quickly and painless as possible. When you do not have experience dealing with the intricacies of Georgia divorce law, you can experience significant delays in having your marriage dissolved and support agreements put into place, such as trips to the courthouse, re-doing documents, re-signing documents again, and working with the judge’s schedule and not your work or family schedule. Depending on the county where you file for divorce, you or your spouse may not even need to step foot inside the courthouse to get divorced with a capable Georgia Divorce Attorney.
6. Could Bring Emotions Into It:
When you handle a divorce on your own without the help of a divorce lawyer in Georgia, you will have to deal with your spouse, and possibly as well as his or her attorney, on your own. Coming face to face with your spouse on a regular basis to discuss the divorce terms can lead to increased emotions and stress that do not need to be brought into your divorce in more abundance. As we all know from life when we make decisions based or affected by our emotions we can make mistakes. With a divorce attorney on your side, you will have an advocate who will not be as affected by the emotions of your situation and be able to voice your concerns and advocate for your rights while handling any contact with your soon-to-be former spouse as necessary.
7. Potential to Be Bullied:
Dealing with your spouse and sometimes his or her attorney can lead to you being bullied. We continue to hear stories of 9 hour sessions suffered through at an opposing spouses attorney’s office trying to “break” the spouse to an agreement they obviously did not feel comfortable in some way making either because of ignorance or good reason. A Georgia divorce lawyer can ensure that you are treated fairly throughout the divorce process and never bullied.
8. Could End Up Costing You More:
While it might seem more cost-effective to file your divorce on your own, you could end up paying more in the long run or even short run if your divorce does not end up as you hoped it would or you find out it wasn’t as complete with all options and circumstances addressed that needed to be or would have liked to have been. For instance, you could end up in a drawn-out custody battle with your spouse, or you could end up with an unfair property settlement that leads to more courtroom time and, ultimately, the need to hire a lawyer at a later date to attempt to correct or change the terms of divorce. Some terms cannot be changed at all in the future.
9. Missing Out on a Lawyer’s Efficiency:
A Georgia divorce lawyer, with experience handling a wide variety and number of divorce cases, can ensure that your case runs smoothly and efficiently. If you file on your own and deal with the divorce on your own, you will miss out on a lawyer’s efficiency learned by developed processes and procedures over time and repetition.
10. No Mediator Between You and Your Spouse:
Even in the most agreeable divorces, there are contentious issues that arise between spouses. Rarely do we see that “unicorn” divorce where both spouses have nothing they disagree about, even after a divorce lawyer has counseled them on every aspect to have a complete divorce. So most of the time an experienced and dedicated Georgia divorce lawyer can serve as a mediator between you and your spouse to prevent issues from becoming heated and contentious, in some cases, causing irreparable damage.
11. No Shoulder to Lean On:
In addition to providing legal counsel and guidance, a good and caring divorce lawyer can also provide confidence from their experience and ability to see the finish line of the divorce more clearly without the emotional baggage and day to day problems that divorce brings temporarily. In addition at Mitchell & Crunk we have established relationships with good stress and mental health counselors and therapists. We also can guide you through some of the next steps after divorce, such as getting other legal documents in place such as a new ID card if you changed your name or need help selling or purchasing a new home, or other additional services to complete the transition for you and your children if you have them to the next and better chapters of your life.