Pro Se Divorce Saves You Money

Written by Adrianna Noton Thursday, 21 April 2011 12:00

When a marriage has been falling apart for quite some time, divorce is often the only option left for the couple. Getting a legal separation is a task that sometimes drags on for months and even years though. All things must be dealt with on the legal level, such as who will take custody of the children, how the marital assets will be divided, even the consideration of child support and alimony payments must be dealt with. For these very reasons, most people run out to hire legal representation before doing anything else.

When a marriage has been falling apart for quite some time, divorce is often the only option left for the couple. Getting a legal separation is a task that sometimes drags on for months and even years though. All things must be dealt with on the legal level, such as who will take custody of the children, how the marital assets will be divided, even the consideration of child support and alimony payments must be dealt with. For these very reasons, most people run out to hire legal representation before doing anything else.

When outside parties do need to become involved there are may different options that can be taken, most of which are very affordable. However, ideally the situation can be solved between the two parties involved without ever having to drag someone else into the matter.

A divorce case, in some instances, can be drug out in court for several years and during this time you will continuously have to pay your lawyer in order to retain their services until the final judgment has been granted.

Most people have no clue that there is one divorce option you have in many cases that costs less than all the other options and you won't need an attorney to do so. You may have heard this referred to as a do it yourself divorce before but the actual legal term is Pro Se. One thing to remember here, though, is that this option isn't always appropriate for all situations, but it does at least give you one more option to check about.

The first thing you should look at when tying to determine if you will be able to file Pro Se is whether or not it will be uncontested by the parties involved even if there are children or martial properties.

What is meant by uncontested is that you won't be having a judge divide assets or debts. This many include things like retirement accounts, investments of any kind and even stocks you have purchased during the marriage. If these things must be dealt with legally than the Pro Se options will not work for you because you will need legal representation to clear these matters up.

For this type of separation to work best it is usually in the best interest of both parties for them both to file a Pro Se divorce rather than one side hire a lawyer while the other does not. Military divorces, however, must be done with a lawyer because they tend to be far more complicated even if the separation is uncontested. Alimony is another factor that can not be on the table in order to file this way.

Just as mentioned above, a Pro Se divorce can be significantly less expensive than most other options you will have as long as you fall within the range of situations that qualifies you to file this way. As long as the legal dissolving of the marriage is uncontested by both parties and there are no complications involved you should be able to get the matter cleared up quickly and efficiently. Make sure not only you but also your spouse are in agreement on the matter at hand so that things go much smoother as well since this will work best without any Divorce services attorneys involved. If either side does end up needing to hire legal council than you should definitely choose a different option for filing.