How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Baltimore Maryland?  - Baltimore DIvorce Lawyer | Maryland Family Law Attorney

It’s a trick question. You don’t want to identify the very best divorce attorney in Baltimore, Maryland There are many divorce attorneys in Baltimore that would certainly do an equally excellent effort for you. It would be inconceivable to determine which one is the “very best.”

The correct question for you, the Baltimore divorce consumer, is precisely how to choose one of those Baltimore best divorce lawyers at the proper levels of representation as well as expense for the realities of your specific circumstances – while steering clear of all of the usual, as well as in some cases hazardous, challenges of the Baltimore divorce lawyer hiring decision.

If you understand what those challenges are (I will certainly advise you in this short article) as well as if you have the correct attitude, particularly that you want to make your Baltimore divorce lawyer fit your instance as well as not permit the attorney to force your instance to fit his/her rigid practice profile, then you enhance significantly your chances of nailing the Baltimore divorce lawyer employing decision. Getting you through that selection successfully is the intention of this post.

First, let’s list the 4 factors to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire cost-free family law documents from Maryland’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those cost-free divorce documents are going to be blank, obviously. You can at that point try to complete as well as record the documents at your regional City of Baltimore divorce court by yourself without professional aid. This is possible – nevertheless highly unlikely, very difficult, complicated, aggravating as well as incredibly lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would be effectively impossible, as well as not sensible even to attempt, in any kind of  elaborate or contested family law matter. It would be highly unlikely to be a success if you have minor children of the marriage or have any kind of assets or financial obligations to be listed in the event or have custody, visitation or assistance settlements in your case. It would absolutely be reckless in a case entailing domestic violence. Do it yourself would also be challenging if you work or if you put any kind of value on your own time. Family law forms as well as processeses are developed by lawyers to confuse you to ensure that you employ – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I don’t spend way too much time on the do it yourself danger. My experience on the cutting edge of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that people that start the divorce procedure with the intent to try to obtain a totally free divorce are going to  try DIY divorce whatever. Somehow, probably economic, there is nothing I have actually had the ability to find to convince them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is consistently false economy. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, as well as screwed-up matters are much more problematic as well as costly to remedy as well as complete. Don’t play this game. The system is developed by lawyers to confuse you as well as force you to hire a divorce lawyer. There are currently affordable alternatives available– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

2. Avoid Traditional Baltimore Family Law Attorneys if Your Case is Likely to be Uncontested:

An uncontested divorce is simply one in which the litigants will not be contesting any kind of issues, including the divorce itself. The litigants don’t have to be pleased as well as they don’t have to like each other. They are either totally or generally in agreement on all issues as well as are sensible enough to understand that standard full-representation divorce lawyers (with big retainers as well as billable hrs) would be the only victors if they contested reasonably inconsequential issues in their divorce.

Standard full representation by a neighborhood Baltimore divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all aspects of your divorce case. It is highly likely to be an excellent professional service, however it is high priced.

If you have a contested case, a complex case, a high-value case or a case that entails domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, full representation by a Baltimore divorce lawyer is NOT to be avoided. It is a prerequisite.

A contested case means that you as well as your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the case. A complicated case includes legal intricacies such as tax issues, active business issues, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of numerous other intricate legal situations. A high-value case indicates that your marital estate is large. There is no specific dollar limit. Definitely, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or greater, that is a high-value case.

If you believe that you have a contested,complicated or high-value case, you do. Employ an expert as well as expensive Baltimore divorce lawyer for full conventional representation. Try to find a certified Family Law specialist. You will certainly not be sorry you did.

If you do NOT have a contested, complex, high-value or domestic violence case, you do NOT need conventional full representation by a Baltimore divorce lawyer. In fact, under those circumstances, full legal representation by a Baltimore divorce lawyer ends up being a threat to your economic position. Avoid it.

Of course, if you call or email a traditional Baltimore divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not need their full representation service. In fact, they will try to frighten the crap out of you by advising you that you undeniably require their service which your case will get screwed up without it.

That might come to pass– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to steer clear of potentially 90+% of the prospective danger of getting your case screwed up if you don’t go DIY and you DON’T hire a traditional Baltimore divorce attorney on a full representation basis.

Your case might also potentially get screwed up if you DID hire a full representation Baltimore divorce attorney. That’s also not probable, but it could possibly happen.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY happen if you hire a traditional full representation Baltimore divorce attorney to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case might be managed very well, but you will overbuy unneeded services and you will pay too much for them.

There’s no need for that to happen any longer. Your mothers and fathers had few other alternatives on their family law employing choices. Your grandparents had no other alternatives. You have lots of legitimate alternatives to make your Baltimore uncontested divorce lawyer employing selection based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Baltimore divorce lawyers. Read on.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the greatest threat you are confronted by in your employing selection in regards to damage to your future legal and economic safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a huge industry. And it is incredibly hazardous to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills offer slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software, fees lower than MOST lawyers, no legal guidance, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of ethics, no malpractice insurance, no understanding of City of Baltimore divorce policies, no regional understanding about City of Baltimore rules of court, regional City of Baltimore forms, regional practices or the policies of specific regional judges in the Baltimore area and no professional interest in you or your case. And all within a completely unregulated Wild-West industry rampant with all kinds of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill fees average about $300, but what you get for that $300 fee is incredibly little– simply prepared Maryland divorce documents. Any other services supplied are all up-sold on the basis that as soon as they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – walk away from money already spent? You are at their whim and you are totally unprotected. And they know it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s website for a very good assessment of just some of the more common scams and up-sells to be experienced in the online divorce industry.

If you choose an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be contending with low-level, untrained, disinterested, high turn-over staff, call center workers and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. No one will carry out any type of analysis on your case to secure you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Customer assistance will be awful due to the fact that it doesn’t have to be anything else. You will never have the ability to meet anyone at an online divorce mill as it is very likely that none of them lie in Baltimore or even in Maryland

If you employ an online divorce mill believing you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your family wind up paying for their mistakes for years, that is NOT a cheap divorce!

4. Avoid Me-Too Lawyer Advertising Platforms:

Me-Too Lawyer Advertising Platforms are online lawyer directory sites like Avvo, FindLaw, LegalZoom, Justia, Google Screened, Google Business Profile (formerly GMB) and now even Yelp. This is the most recent pitfall to steer clear of in your Baltimore divorce lawyer employing decision.

Nevertheless, the prospective damage here is not significant– nowhere near the damage done consistently by non-lawyer online divorce mills or indeed the damage likely to be done by you to your own case with DIY divorce.

If you employ a Baltimore divorce attorney you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to pay too much to some extent, depending on how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, but not as severely as if you had actually employed a traditional full representation Baltimore family law attorney directly.

Certainly, you don’t wish to hire a traditional full representation Baltimore divorce attorney you discover on a mass-lawyer platform. That would intensify your over-payment, but the important aspect here is that you don’t wish to hire a traditional full representation Baltimore divorce attorney to manage your easy uncontested divorce, no matter where you discover that lawyer!!

The danger with employing a Baltimore divorce attorney that you find ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re employing a humdrum Baltimore divorce attorney– a drone who simply stands in line with all other Baltimore divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your business but does nothing to set apart himself or herself from the Baltimore lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to persuade you that s/he is the unequalled resolution to your case. You don’t want that lawyer.

You want to get a Baltimore divorce lawyer who is imaginative, vibrant, unique, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you employ a Baltimore divorce lawyer to take care of your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even look after his/her own law practice interests aggressively and decisively? You’re trying to find a divorce lawyer who purposefully sets himself or herself apart from the Baltimore lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with Avvo and not doing anything else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are completely free to sign up with, which is why every divorce lawyer in City of Baltimore will have registered. So you should not disqualify a Baltimore divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you should not consider that such a Baltimore divorce lawyer is very intelligent or business-savvy either. The issue is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are completely free for the lawyer to sign up, the lawyer must then start to pay continuously increasing fees on a bid-basis, constantly battling against other regional City of Baltimore divorce lawyers, to be seen on the leading page of the platform’s website. If that lawyer doesn’t pay extra, s/he’ll be on page 3 or 5 of the mass-lawyer website in even a medium-sized town. If that lawyer doesn’t keep bidding up his/her fees, she’ll not get enough cases to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the leading very few lawyers in each town taking almost all cases– based upon how much advertising fees they can pay– not based upon how excellent they are or on how they have actually configured their offerings to fit your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your business is the quantity of money s/he is prepared to pay to get it, not the quality and skill of his/her service offerings.

If that me-too divorce lawyer in Baltimore pays more to the mass-lawyer finder platform and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a highlighted position on the platform’s website and will get more cases, but his/her expenses of doing business will continuously increase while his/her fees are reasonably fixed by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Baltimore divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will constantly need more and more lower revenue cases simply to keep up with business expenses. You don’t want that business-foolishness in somebody you will rely on with your legal and economic future.

And yes, that lawyer is going to use the very same brain to look after your case as s/he used to screw his/her own law practice into the ground.

How to Find the Best Baltimore Divorce Lawyer – Baltimore DIvorce Lawyer | Maryland Family Law Attorney

So above are 4 things to stay away from: do it yourself divorce, conventional full-service lawyer representation in easy uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and uninspiring me-too drone lawyers who are truly bad at the business of law practice.

So what do you actually seek in a Baltimore divorce attorney?

Before I advise you, I wish to set the stage by offering you 2 exceptional statistics that I did not accept when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you need to make the most of them in your Baltimore divorce lawyer employing decision:

1. There is a glut of lawyers on the market and it’s serious. According to the ABA National Lawyer Population Survey, in 2017, the whole legal profession lost some 1400 jobs while almost 20,000 brand new lawyers have been added – just in 2017. And the ABA has just certified a huge new law school down in Texas. And this has been trending for years. And all of this surplus of supply while the demand for legal services has been flat or, as in the case of family law, diminishing because of DIY divorce and the overwhelming success of fraudulent and incompetent online divorce mills (both caused by the Internet).
2. From 1988 to 2012, the average solo lawyer practitioner’s yearly income, after adjusting for inflation, dropped from $70,747 to $49,130. Read that last sentence again. This is based on published data from the IRS compiled from solo lawyer practitioner tax returns for the years specified. The legal profession is in serious economic decline. More so in areas of consumer law, like uncontested divorce, where the Internet has reduced the knowledge gap between lawyers and consumers.

What to Look For:

Business-savvy lawyers who want to participate in the divorce industry are under considerable price and business-model pressure right now. Take advantage! You want to hire a Baltimore divorce lawyer who has responded to this professional crisis in the following ways.

You want as many of the following factors as you can find in one Baltimore divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Baltimore divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this denotes that you just pay for the legal services your case requires. You will normally do your own filing of docs at court and arrange for the service of filed docs on your spouse/partner. The divorce lawyer will review your docs before they are filed, identify problem issues in your case and suggest the very best alternatives based upon legal guidance and regional understanding. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can see that they don’t know or don’t want you to know, simply hang up. They don’t yet get it. Move on. Don’t educate them.
3. Uses online divorce software that allows you to log into a client portal and enterall of the details in your case.  This not only saves money and time, but it in fact empowers you in your own case. You are the source of all informationin your case. Also, there’s no 50-page hard copyone-size-fits-all questionnaire for you to get through in the lawyer’s waiting room.
4. Uses other cloud-based software and apps – listen for buzz phrases like “client portal” and “virtual law practice.” Ask about e-filing and listen closely to determine if the lawyer even knows what it is.
5. Doesn’t have a fancy office in a downtown high-rise or across from the courthouse. You don’t want to pay those rents. This is even more so during C-19. You’re looking for a lawyer in a strip mall or even one who works at home and has one or more shared office arrangements for client meetings. Don’t use a lawyer who has obviously big expenses – YOU pay them!
6. Look for a competitive edge. Look for a lawyer who understands what is going on around him or her in his or her chosen profession. The practice of law is legal education, knowledge and experience attached to a business model. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services or online divorce interviews and they act like law practice is ONLY a noble profession and not a competitive business, hang up. Don’t educate them. They don’t yet get it.
7. Specialization – You don’t want to hire a lawyer who is a jack-of-all-trades on the basis that s/he might get hired for something. There are many different areas of law practice. They are very different from each other. Specialization is the name of the game today. Look at the lawyer’s website. It will tell you whether s/he is trying to get work in numerous areas of practice. It doesn’t matter if the lawyer handles maybe 2 areas of law, particularly if they are both areas of consumer law, such as divorce and bankruptcy. However, if you see that the primary practice area is DUI or personal injury or criminal law and family law appears to be an add-on, move on. Don’t explain.  Just move on. They do not handle enough family law to be any good.  They use family law as an unwanted add-on.  They will not be experienced enough and they will have to charge you a lot because you will be one of very few family law clients. Also, personal injury law paydays are huge and criminal law cases are critical to someone’s personal freedom. Where do you think your family law case will fit into that lawyer’s busy day?
8. Look for a spark – You are looking for a lawyer who has positioned himself or herself in such a way as to convince you that s/he is the unique local divorce lawyer in Baltimore that is best suited to resolving your case and your specific problems. This is hard to define, but you will understand if that lawyer makes this connection with you. If there is no such spark on the first exposure, there never will be. Move on.
9. Look for Unique Action – Obviously, this does not involve ONLY standing in line with every other lawyer at Avvo or similar me-too lawyer platforms. Avvo owns all of that attorney’s blog posts and may control his or her entire marketing outreach. Avvo takes money from that lawyer in order to sign up more lawyers in Baltimore lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Baltimore. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Baltimore. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Baltimore has a 1-800-DIVORCE.

Divorce and Other Family Law Services Are Available Through 1-800-DIVORCE in Most Medium to Large Cities, Including the Following Cities, As Well As in Baltimore:

Washington, D. C., Alexandria, Philadelphia, Allentown, Edison, Hampton, Elizabeth, Newport News, Newark, Jersey City, New York City, Norfolk, Paterson, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Yonkers, Pittsburgh, Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, Durham, Syracuse, Raleigh, Erie, Hartford, Cary, Buffalo, Greensboro, Akron