Legal Expert has Some Good Advice on Divorce and Money

April 17, 2009 by admin
Filed under: personal loans

Anyone going through the pain of divorce knows it’s not just the emotional angst that can leave you sleepless at night — it’s the financial angst, as well.

Fortunately, things seem to be changing as more divorced couples are taking the “Do It Yourself” approach and leaving overly-litigious lawyers out of the equation — and saving a bundle in the process. That’s the notion forwarded by California divorce guru Ed Sherman, author of the groundbreaking books Divorce Solutions as well as How to Do Your Own Divorce in California, both of which are used as primers by about-to-split couples looking to reduce the pain of divorce.

“Our adversarial legal system—and the way attorneys are trained to work in it—tends to cause trouble, raise the level of conflict, and greatly increase your expenses,” says Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Sherman. “The last thing you want to do with the fragile emotions you are facing during divorce is to get into a situation that will increase your conflict and level of upset.”

According to Sherman, there are five main reasons lawyers and the legal system make divorce costly - financially and emotionally:

In a divorce, the law is concerned with only three things - property, support, and parenting arrangements for minor children. If there is no legal opposition (papers filed in court) to requests on these three subjects, getting a divorce is simply a matter of red-tape and paperwork, easy to do.
Very few divorces hinge on valid legal issues. Almost every conceivable issue has already been decided in great detail and can be looked up in an enormous body of cases and statutes. This means there is only rarely a fact situation where divorcing parties don’t know ahead of time pretty much what any judge would order, so there’s really no good legal reason for people to disagree, at least none worth the financial and emotional cost.
There are no solutions for divorce problems in a law office or court room. Divorce problems are almost entirely personal and emotional, but the law has no tools that can help. As to lawyers, nothing in law school prepares them to help people resolve disagreements based on emotional upset.
Retaining a lawyer almost always makes things worse rather than better. Worse than merely having no solutions for one’s divorce problems, our legal system—known as the adversarial system of justice— is based on conflict. When you take a divorce into the legal system to “settle” disagreements, things invariably get worse and the level of conflict and costs go way up.
The things spouses can do the help themselves are far superior to anything a lawyer can do. The problems are entirely personal, between spouses, and there are specific steps to take before either party start to negotiate, actions that help protect that spouse, the children and the other party.

It’s becoming abundantly clear that people don’t need to depend on lawyers to handle an otherwise amicable divorce. In fact, in many cases, lawyers can make the situation worse — and leave divorcing couples in the poor house while the lawyers cash the big checks.

Fortunately, those days may be over.

Share and Enjoy: