How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Cambridge Massachusetts?  - Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Cambridge

It’s a trick question. You do not want to get the most effective divorce attorney in Cambridge, Massachusetts There are a lot of divorce attorneys in Cambridge that would likely do a just as good effort for you. It would be impracticable to decide on which one is the “absolute best.”

The legitimate issue for you, the Cambridge divorce consumer, is how to locate just one of those Cambridge best divorce lawyers at the ideal standards of assistance and expense for the facts of your certain circumstances – while keeping away from every one of the common, and occasionally dangerous, mistakes of the Cambridge divorce lawyer hiring decision.

If you recognize what those mistakes are (I will certainly advise you in this post) and if you have the right mindset, specifically that you wish to make your Cambridge divorce lawyer fit your case and not allow the lawyer to force your case to fit his or her stiff practice profile, then you raise substantially your possibilities of nailing the Cambridge divorce lawyer employing decision. Getting you through that selection successfully is the objective of this post.

To begin with, let’s mention the 4 factors to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is entirely possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download free family law documents from Massachusetts’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those free divorce documents will be blank, obviously. You can then try to complete and submit the documents at your neighborhood Middlesex County divorce court by yourself without specialist assistance. This is possible – nevertheless very improbable, very challenging, confusing, frustrating and very lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would be essentially out of the question, and not sensible even to try, in any kind of  elaborate or disputed family law proceedings. It would be very improbable to be a success if you have minor children of the marital relationship or have any kind of property or financial debts to be listed in the case or have custody, visitation or assistance agreements in your proceedings. It would absolutely be risky in a case entailing domestic physical violence. Do it yourself would also be challenging if you work or if you position any sort of worth on your own time. Family law forms and processeses are created by lawyers to puzzle you so that you employ – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I do not spend way too much time on the do it yourself risk. 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 most likely to  try Do-It-Yourself divorce whatever. For some reason, possibly economic, there is nothing I‘ve had the ability to find to persuade them not to.

DIY in Family Law is always false economy. You WILL probably screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are far more perplexing and expensive to deal with and complete. Do not play this game. The system is created by lawyers to puzzle you and force you to hire a divorce lawyer. There are currently economical choices available– see below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is simply one in which the litigants will not be disputing any kind of concerns, including the divorce itself. The litigants do not have to be cheerful and they do not have to care for each other. They are either completely or generally in agreement on all concerns and are sensible enough to acknowledge that conventional full-representation divorce lawyers (with huge retainers and billable hrs) would be the only victors if they disputed relatively unimportant concerns in their divorce.

Conventional complete representation by a neighborhood Cambridge divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all aspects of your divorce matter. It is very likely to be a very good professional service, however it is very costly.

If you have a contested case, a complex case, a high-value case or a case that involves domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, complete representation by a Cambridge divorce lawyer is NOT to be evaded. It is a necessity.

A contested case signifies that you and your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the case. A complicated case consists of legal intricacies such as tax concerns, current business concerns, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of many other complicated legal situations. A high-value case denotes that your marital estate is very large. There is no specific dollar limit. Certainly, 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. Hire an expert and high priced Cambridge divorce lawyer for complete conventional representation. Search for 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 require conventional complete representation by a Cambridge divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, complete legal representation by a Cambridge divorce lawyer ends up being a danger to your economic position. Avoid it.

Of course, if you call or email a conventional Cambridge 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 informing you that you positively require their service and that your case will get screwed up without it.

That could transpire– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to stay clear of perhaps 90+% of the potential risk of getting your case screwed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T hire a conventional Cambridge divorce lawyer on a complete representation basis.

Your case could also perhaps get screwed up if you DID hire a complete representation Cambridge divorce lawyer. That’s also not probable, however it could possibly occur.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY occur if you hire a conventional complete representation Cambridge divorce lawyer to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case might be dealt with extremely well, however you will overbuy unnecessary services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no requirement for that to occur any longer. Your mothers and fathers had few other choices on their family law employing decisions. Your grandparents had no other choices. You have many valid choices to make your Cambridge uncontested divorce lawyer employing selection based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Cambridge divorce lawyers. Continue reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the biggest danger 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 big industry. And it is very dangerous to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills use slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software applications, costs lower than MOST lawyers, no legal guidance, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of ethics, no malpractice insurance coverage, no knowledge of Middlesex County divorce policies, no regional knowledge about Middlesex County guidelines of court, regional Middlesex County forms, regional practices or the policies of individual regional judges in the Cambridge local area and no professional interest in you or your case. And all within a totally unregulated Wild-West industry widespread with all kinds of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

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

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s site for a very good assessment of merely some of the more typical scams and up-sells to be found in the online divorce industry.

If you choose an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be contending with low-level, untrained, indifferent, high turn-over staff, call center workers and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. Nobody will perform any kind of analysis on your case to secure you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Client assistance will be awful since it doesn’t have to be anything else. You will never have the ability to meet anybody at an online divorce mill as it is highly likely that none of them lie in Cambridge or perhaps in Massachusetts

If you employ an online divorce mill believing you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your household end up paying for their errors for years, that is NOT a cheap 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 pitfall to steer clear of in your Cambridge divorce lawyer employing decision.

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

If you employ a Cambridge divorce lawyer you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to overpay to some extent, depending upon how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, however not as terribly as if you had hired a conventional complete representation Cambridge family law lawyer straight up.

Certainly, you do not want to hire a conventional complete representation Cambridge divorce lawyer you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, however the crucial element here is that you do not want to hire a conventional complete representation Cambridge divorce lawyer to handle your basic uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

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

You want to have a Cambridge divorce lawyer who is imaginative, bold, unique, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you employ a Cambridge divorce lawyer to safeguard your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even take care of his or her own business interests strongly and decisively? You’re searching for a divorce lawyer who intentionally sets himself or herself apart from the Cambridge lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with Avvo and not doing anything else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are free of cost to sign up with, which is why every divorce lawyer in Middlesex County will have joined. So you must not disqualify a Cambridge divorce lawyer just because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you must not believe that such a Cambridge divorce lawyer is very wise or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free of cost for the lawyer to sign up, the lawyer needs to then start to pay constantly increasing costs on a bid-basis, constantly contending against other regional Middlesex County divorce lawyers, to be seen on the leading page of the platform’s site. If that lawyer doesn’t pay more, s/he’ll be on page 3 or 5 of the mass-lawyer site in even a medium-sized town. If that lawyer doesn’t keep bidding up his or her costs, she’ll not get sufficient clients to stay in business.

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 costs they can pay– not based upon how excellent 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 or her service offerings.

If that me-too divorce lawyer in Cambridge pays more to the mass-lawyer finder platform and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a featured position on the platform’s site and will get more sales, however his or her costs of working will constantly rise while his or her costs are relatively fixed by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Cambridge divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will constantly 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 economic future.

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

How to Find the Best Cambridge Divorce Lawyer – Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Cambridge

So above are 4 problems to avoid: do it yourself divorce, traditional full-service lawyer representation in basic uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone lawyers who are really bad at law practice business.

So what do you actually look for in a Cambridge divorce lawyer?

Before I advise you, I want to set the stage by offering you two exceptional data that I did not believe when I first saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you really need to take full advantage of them in your Cambridge 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 Cambridge 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 Cambridge divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Cambridge divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this means that you just purchase the legal services your case needs. You will typically do your own filing of docs at court and schedule the service of filed docs on your spouse/partner. The divorce lawyer will review your docs before they are filed, recognize problem concerns in your case and recommend the best choices based upon legal guidance and regional knowledge. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can tell they do not understand or do not desire you to understand, just hang up. They do not yet get it. Carry on. Do not inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that allows you to log into a client portal and enterall of the personal data in your case.  This not only conserves time and money, but it actually empowers you in your own case. You are the source of all datain your case. Likewise, there’s no 50-page hard copyone-size-fits-all questionnaire for you to get through 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 Cambridge 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 Cambridge lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Cambridge. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Cambridge. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Cambridge 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 Cambridge:

Lowell, Worcester, Providence, Manchester, Hartford, Waterbury, New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, Yonkers, Paterson, New York City, Jersey City, Newark, Elizabeth, Edison, Allentown, Syracuse, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D. C., Buffalo, Alexandria, Erie, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Pittsburgh