Using Online Services v. Do it Yourself Kits

When we first developed this site, we did a google search for online divorce in Washington. We were blown away. The first page was nothing but national generic websites.

Then we got down to the do it yourself kits. Spend $29.99 and you can process your own divorce. Sounds like a deal.

I don't know why people choose to represent themselves in Court. You certainly have the right to do so. No one makes you hire a lawyer.

But you have the right to represent yourself, the same way you have the right to extract your own tooth or do your own open heart surgery. If you have a health problem you go see a doctor, right? It is the same thing with a legal problem.

Attorneys are worthwhile. They are paid to navigate the system for you on your behalf so that you can get the relief from the Court system that you want.

The Court system is a system with no leniency for violation of the rules or mistakes made in filling out the forms. I've watched dozens of pro se family law petitioners have their case thrown out at the 90 day window mark because they didn't fill out their forms properly or the relief they were attempting to procure was outside what was permissible under the law.

You need to know the law, the court rules, and the courtroom procedure. If you don't, you are risking a lot. It's up to you. If you are comfortable with the risk, you should do it on your own. You'll spend 100 hours of your time to save $350.00. That's $3.50 per hour. Seems like you can do better.

Look, we've made it pretty simple. For $299.00 (no children) $399.00 (with children), you get to use our online divorce system. I don't require that you meet with me, you don't need to go to Court, you just spend twenty minutes following the online interview and I prepare everything for you. You never have to leave the comfort of your home to complete this divorce. At most you will have to talk to me, a real live person, for fifteen or twenty minutes while I clarify your entries on the form.

My name and my bar number go on every document that gets submitted to the Court. I handle all the problems that can arise. I speak to the Judge. If the Judge tells me there is an error, I fix it. I fix it right then and there. You don't need to do anything.

Or you can spend $149.00 on a do it yourself kit and handle all that stuff that you don't know about on your own. You simply don't know what you don't know and quite honestly, you don't want to learn the law on dissolution by screwing up your own court case.

If you are bent on doing your own divorce, more power to you. I'll provide you the links right now to the code and the forms. Take a look at them. Remember this. If you file in your own county and you make a mistake, that county is where you must finish your case. You can't come back here and start over after you have already started your own case in another county.

It's up to you. You can pay a little bit of money to make your life convenient and get this unfortunate situation behind you or you can handle it on your own and get even more frustrated than you already are.

If you think you can navigate your way through the dissolution process, I admire your optimism, but I've also been there when I did my first dissolution case. They even gave me a law degree and a bar license to help me get through it. I spent hours and hours redoing the petition, trying to get it through the court. Finally, a clerk who knew I was a newbie, took me aside and introduced me to a seasoned family law attorney. I had my documents fixed in ten minutes and the case was over. I've gotten quite a bit more efficient at it since then.

You don't have the benefit of a clerk who knows you are a new attorney, or a law degree, or a license from the State of Washington to practice law. There is a lot of red tape to deal with and a lot of procedural issues to address. What forms do you use if you have children? What are the rules for deviation? Did you meet the residency requirement? Did the proper declaration get filed to address that issue? Was the joinder filled out properly? What is a joinder anyway? Are you moving? Will that affect residency issues? What about notice for taking the children with you?

Sure, you can do it on your own, and if you really think you can handle, I encourage you to try. Remember, we don't do contested cases and we won't clean up a case after it has been started. Our office only does uncontested petitions that are submitted through our website. It's a very streamlined practice and we're very good at what we do.