Do It Yourself Divorce

There is a lot of information on the web about divorce.  There are also low-cost and no-cost kits available.  Do you have enough information to handle your own divorce?

Sometimes, the answer is yes, especially if your spouse and you have no children and not much property.

More often the answer is, "You are taking a huge risk." Remember your Judgment of Divorce can often not be modified, unless both spouses agree.  If you have left out something that favors you, it's unlikely that your spouse will agree to change it later.
There is a way to handle your divorce and get the help you need to understand all the parts of the divorce, yet keep the cost down.  It's called "unbundled services" by lawyers.  Instead of retaining a lawyer to handle the entire divorce for you, you contract for just the parts with which you need.

For example, perhaps your spouse and you can agree on how to handle parenting time,  child custody, child support, but need some help with dividing the property and equalizing the retirement accounts.  You also need help drafting the documents and getting them filed with the court in order to finalize the divorce.  Under a limited services contract, you can get help with just these pieces; not the entire case.

Ask the firm whether they have forms available that can help you ask the right questions before you confer with the lawyer.  Once you fill out the forms, the lawyer can draft the settlement agreement using the complete information that you have provided.  At Nichols, Sacks, Slank, Sendelbach & Buiteweg, we refer to this as "Streamlined Divorce."  If the forms are complete, our attorneys can draft the final documents at a relatively low cost.  The forms help to assure that you have covered all the important information completely.