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You fell in love, bought a home, and a started a family. But now your American dream is unraveling. The white picket fence is falling over, and you have just filed for a divorce. Unfortunately, realizing that you want to get a divorce is not nearly as simple as obtaining one. Nearly every part of your life as you know it needs to be analyzed, reviewed and delegated. So, says divorce attorney Arnold Goldstein of Goldstein Law Offices in Illinois, unless you have no assets, debt, and children, then you cannot successfully file for divorce yourself.
In fact, the courts probably won’t even allow it. If you make less than $20,000 a year and have no assets or children, then you don’t need a lawyer, he says. The system will allow you to go in to the clerk’s office, and as long as both parties waive alimony, then it can be done by yourself. Does that fit the description of your situation? Probably not. When you start making a little money or have children, you will definitely have some sort of debt that has accumulated during the course of the marriage, Goldstein adds.
Once you’ve realized that you will need legal representation, you have to make sure that you are hiring an attorney who will suit your needs. First and foremost, says Goldstein, you need someone with experience, one thing that you definitely don’t want to compromise on. Essentially, a divorce attorney also must know a lot about real estate law, taxes and finances too, since all three areas will affect how much money and property you are awarded in the judgment. If you are hiring a lawyer right out of law school, he hasn’t had the experience or acquired the necessary knowledge to defend your case. An attorney that is new to the field also won’t know precisely how to leave every rock unturned. As it’s difficult to go back and change the ruling in a divorce case, says Goldstein, so you need to make sure that everything was discussed during the initial proceedings.
Goldstein also notes that he does realize that money is also a major factor for nearly everyone seeking legal representation. However, it’s important to keep in mind that your attorney will only generate money based on the amount of time that he put into your case. And if currently, since you are divorced, you are making significantly less than your spouse, the court system will make sure that your spouse pays for some or all of your counseling so that you both are given the same advantages. In Illinois, he says, this is referred to as leveling the playing field.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Neither publication of this article nor your receipt of this article creates an attorney-client relationship.
