How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Bellevue Washington?  - Divorce & Family Law in Bellevue

It’s a trick question. You do not want to get the most effective divorce lawyer in Bellevue, Washington There are several divorce attorneys in Bellevue that would certainly do an equally very good job for you. It would definitely be out of the question to decide on which one is the “absolute best.”

The actual issue for you, the Bellevue divorce client, is exactly how to choose one of those Bellevue top divorce lawyers at the correct standards of representation and also expense for the aspects of your certain scenario – while staying clear of all of the usual, and also in some cases hazardous, risks of the Bellevue divorce lawyer selection decision.

If you understand what those risks are (I will advise you in this blog post) and also if you have the appropriate mindset, particularly that you wish to make your Bellevue divorce lawyer fit your situation and also not permit the attorney to force your situation to fit his/her inflexible practice profile, after that you boost substantially your chances of nailing the Bellevue divorce lawyer hiring decision. Getting you through that selection effectively is the intention of this post.

Initially, let’s itemize the 4 points to keep away from:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is entirely possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire totally free family law documents from Washington’s judicial council or family court sites. Those totally free divorce documents are going to be blank, obviously. You can at that point try to complete and also file the documents at your regional King County divorce court on your own without specialist assistance. This is feasible – but extremely unlikely, extremely challenging, confusing, aggravating and also incredibly slow.

Do it yourself divorce would certainly be essentially impossible, and also not smart even to attempt, in any type of  elaborate or contested family law process. It would certainly be extremely unlikely to be a success if you have minor children of the marital relationship or have any type of assets or debts to be detailed in the event or have custody, visitation or support settlements in your case. It would certainly be ill-advised in a matter involving domestic physical violence. Do it yourself would certainly likewise be tough if you work or if you position any sort of value on your own time. Family law forms and also processeses are made by lawyers to perplex you so that you work with – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I do not invest excessive time on the DIY risk. My experience on the cutting edge of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that folks that begin the divorce process with the intent to try to obtain a totally free divorce are going to  try DIY divorce no matter what. For one reason or another, most likely financial, there is absolutely nothing I‘ve had the ability to discover to encourage them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is always fake affordability. You WILL probably screw it up, and also screwed-up proceedings are much more challenging and also costly to deal with and also finalize. Do not play this game. The system is made by lawyers to perplex you and also force you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are currently cost-efficient alternatives offered– see below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

2. Avoid Traditional Bellevue 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 type of issues, including the divorce itself. The litigants do not need to be happy and also they do not need to care for each other. They are either entirely or mostly in agreement on all issues and also are smart enough to understand that traditional full-representation divorce lawyers (with significant retainers and also billable hrs) would certainly be the only winners if they contested relatively unimportant issues in their divorce.

Traditional complete representation by a local Bellevue divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all facets of your divorce matter. It is extremely likely to be a very good professional service, however it is very costly.

If you have a contested matter, a complex matter, a high-value matter or a matter that entails domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, complete representation by a Bellevue divorce lawyer is NOT to be avoided. It is a requirement.

A disputed matter denotes that you and also your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the matter. A complicated matter includes legal intricacies such as tax issues, current business issues, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of countless other complicated 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 higher, that is a high-value matter.

If you think that you have a contested,complex or high-value matter, you do. Hire an experienced and also expensive Bellevue divorce lawyer for complete conventional representation. Search for a certified Family Law specialist. You will not be sorry you did.

If you do NOT have a contested, complex, high-value or domestic violence case, you do NOT require conventional complete representation by a Bellevue divorce lawyer. In fact, under those circumstances, complete legal representation by a Bellevue divorce lawyer ends up being a danger to your financial position. Stay clear of it.

Obviously, if you call or email a traditional Bellevue divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not require their complete representation service. In fact, they will try to frighten the crap out of you by sharing with you that you positively need their service which your case will get screwed up without it.

That could well happen– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll tell you next how to keep away from potentially 90+% of the possible risk of getting your case screwed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T employ a traditional Bellevue divorce attorney on a complete representation basis.

Your case could likewise potentially get screwed up if you DID employ a complete representation Bellevue divorce attorney. That’s likewise not probable, however it could take place.

However, what will DEFINITELY take place if you employ a traditional complete representation Bellevue divorce attorney to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case might be dealt with very well, however you will overbuy unnecessary services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no need for that to take place anymore. Your mothers and fathers had few other alternatives on their family law hiring choices. Your grandparents had no other alternatives. You have lots of valid alternatives to make your Bellevue uncontested divorce lawyer hiring selection based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Bellevue divorce lawyers. Keep reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the biggest risk you face in your hiring selection in regards to damage to your future legal and financial security. Non-lawyer online divorce is a substantial industry. And it is incredibly hazardous to your legal and financial future.

Online divorce mills provide slick websites, wicked-cool divorce computer software, fees lower than MOST lawyers, no legal guidance, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance coverage, no knowledge of King County divorce policies, no local knowledge about King County guidelines of court, local King County forms, local practices or the policies of individual local judges in the Bellevue area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within a totally uncontrolled Wild-West industry rampant with all kinds of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill fees average about $300, however what you get for that $300 charge is extremely little– just prepared Washington divorce documents. Any other services offered are all up-sold on the basis that as soon as they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – leave money already spent? You are at their whim and you are entirely unprotected. And they know it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s website for a great summary of merely a few of the more common frauds and up-sells to be found in the online divorce industry.

If you choose an online divorce mill, you’ll always be contending with low-level, untrained, disinterested, high turn-over personnel, call center employees and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. No one will conduct any kind of analysis on your case to safeguard you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Client support will be terrible because it doesn’t need to be anything else. You will never ever be able to consult with anybody at an online divorce mill as it is most likely that none lie in Bellevue or perhaps in Washington

If you work with an online divorce mill thinking you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your household wind up paying for their mistakes for many years, that is NOT a low-cost divorce!

4. Avoid Me-Too Lawyer Advertising Platforms:

Me-Too Lawyer Advertising Platforms are online lawyer directories like Avvo, FindLaw, LegalZoom, Justia, Google Screened, Google Business Profile (formerly GMB) and now even Yelp. This is the latest risk to keep away from in your Bellevue divorce lawyer hiring decision.

However, the possible harm here is not big– nowhere near the damage done regularly 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 work with a Bellevue divorce attorney you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to overpay to some extent, depending upon just how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, however not as badly as if you had actually employed a traditional complete representation Bellevue family law attorney straight up.

Obviously, you do not wish to employ a traditional complete representation Bellevue divorce attorney you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would intensify your over-payment, however the essential aspect here is that you do not wish to employ a traditional complete representation Bellevue divorce attorney to manage your easy uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The risk with hiring a Bellevue divorce attorney that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re employing a mediocre Bellevue divorce attorney– a drone who just stands in line with all other Bellevue divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your business however does nothing to differentiate himself or herself from the Bellevue lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to persuade you that s/he is the exceptional resolution to your case. You do not want to have that lawyer.

You want to get a Bellevue divorce lawyer who is innovative, bold, distinct, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you work with a Bellevue divorce lawyer to safeguard your own legal and financial interests when s/he does not even care for his/her own business interests aggressively and decisively? You’re trying to find a divorce lawyer who purposefully sets himself or herself apart from the Bellevue lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with Avvo and doing nothing else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are totally free to join, which is why every divorce lawyer in King County will have joined. So you ought to not disqualify a Bellevue divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

However, you ought to not believe that such a Bellevue divorce lawyer is extremely wise or business-savvy either. The issue is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are totally free for the lawyer to register with, the lawyer needs to then begin to pay continually increasing fees on a bid-basis, always battling against other local King County divorce lawyers, to be seen on the top page of the platform’s website. If that lawyer doesn’t pay more, 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 trade to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top extremely few lawyers in each town taking almost all clients– based on just how much advertising fees they can pay– not based on how great they are or on how they have actually configured their offerings to suit your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your trade 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 Bellevue 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 business, however his/her costs of acquiring cases will constantly increase while his/her fees are relatively set by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Bellevue divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will always require more and more lower profit cases just to keep up with sales costs. You do not desire that business-foolishness in somebody you will trust with your legal and financial future.

And yes, that lawyer is going to use the very same brain to care for your case as s/he used to screw his/her own business into the ground.

How to Find the Best Bellevue Divorce Lawyer – Divorce & Family Law in Bellevue

So above are 4 things to keep clear of: DIY divorce, conventional full-service lawyer representation in easy uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone lawyers who are really bad at business.

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

Before I advise you, I wish to set the stage by giving you 2 impressive stats that I did not accept when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you really need to take full advantage of them in your Bellevue divorce lawyer hiring 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 Bellevue 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 Bellevue divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Bellevue divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this suggests that you only pay for the legal services your case requires. You will normally do your own filing of docs at court and schedule the service of filed docs on your spouse/partner. The divorce lawyer will evaluate your docs before they are submitted to court, identify problem concerns in your case and recommend the best alternatives based upon legal guidance and local knowledge. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services and you can determine they do not know or do not desire you to know, just hang up. They do not yet get it. Carry on. Do not inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that enables you to log into a client portal and enterall of the information in your case.  This not only saves time and money, 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 paper copyone-size-fits-all questionnaire for you to complete in the lawyer’s waiting area.
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 Bellevue 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 Bellevue lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Bellevue. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Bellevue. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Bellevue 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 Bellevue:

Kent, Everett, Tacoma, Vancouver, Portland, Gresham, Salem, Spokane, Eugene, Boise, Las Vegas