How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Cincinnati Ohio?  - Cincinnati DIvorce Lawyer | Ohio Family Law Attorney

It’s a trick question. You do not want to find the very best divorce lawyer or attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio There are several divorce attorneys in Cincinnati that would likely do an every bit as excellent job for you. It would be out of the question to identify which one is the “absolute best.”

The actual issue for you, the Cincinnati divorce client, is just how to find one of those Cincinnati top divorce attorneys at the perfect levels of representation and expense for the facts of your particular scenario – while avoiding all of the typical, and in some cases dangerous, challenges of the Cincinnati divorce lawyer selection decision.

If you recognize what those challenges are (I will certainly inform you in this post) and if you have the appropriate mindset, namely that you intend to make your Cincinnati divorce lawyer fit your instance and not permit the lawyer to force your instance to fit his/her rigid practice profile, after that you enhance considerably your chances of nailing the Cincinnati divorce lawyer employing decision. Getting you through that choice effectively is the purpose of this blog post.

First, let’s specify the 4 aspects to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is feasible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download cost-free family law documents from Ohio’s judicial council or family court websites. Those cost-free divorce documents are going to be blank, of course. You can at that point attempt to finish and submit the documents at your local Hamilton County divorce court by yourself without specialist assistance. This is feasible – however extremely improbable, very difficult, complicated, frustrating and exceptionally slow.

Do it yourself divorce would be practically out of the question, and not smart even to try, in any  elaborate or contended family law case. It would be extremely improbable to be effective if you have minor children of the marital relationship or have any property or financial obligations to be specified in the event or have custody, visitation or assistance agreements in your case. It would absolutely be reckless in a matter including domestic violence. Do it yourself would likewise be hard if you have a job or if you put any type of value on your own time. Family law documents and processeses are created by attorneys to confuse you so that you employ – a lawyer.

Please excuse me if I do not spend way too much time on the DIY threat. My experience on the cutting edge of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that people that begin the divorce process with the intent to attempt to get a totally free divorce are going to  attempt DIY divorce whatever. For one reason or another, possibly financial, there is absolutely nothing I‘ve had the ability to uncover to convince them not to.

DIY in Family Law is typically fake saving. You WILL probably screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are far more perplexing and expensive to fix and finalize. Don’t play this game. The system is created by attorneys to confuse you and force you to hire a divorce lawyer. There are now cost-effective alternatives readily available– see below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is merely one in which the parties will not be challenging any problems, including the divorce itself. The parties do not need to be pleased and they do not need to like each other. They are either completely or mostly in agreement on all problems and are smart enough to acknowledge that standard full-representation divorce attorneys (with significant retainers and billable hours) would be the only victors if they contended reasonably inconsequential problems in their divorce.

Traditional complete representation by a regional Cincinnati divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all facets of your divorce litigation. It is extremely likely to be a very good professional service, but it is really expensive.

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

A contested case signifies that you and your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the case. A complicated case includes legal intricacies such as tax problems, active business problems, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of numerous other complicated legal scenarios. A high-value case indicates that your marital estate is very large. There is no particular dollar limit. Absolutely, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or greater, that is a high-value case.

If you think that you have a disputed,complicated or high-value case, you do. Hire an expert and expensive Cincinnati divorce lawyer for complete conventional representation. Try to find a certified Family Law specialist. You will certainly not be sorry you did.

If you do NOT have a disputed, complex, high-value or domestic violence case, you do NOT require conventional complete representation by a Cincinnati divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, complete legal representation by a Cincinnati divorce lawyer ends up being a threat to your financial position. Avoid it.

Obviously, if you call or email a traditional Cincinnati divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not require their complete representation service. In fact, they will attempt to scare the crap out of you by advising you that you positively are in need of their service and that your case will get messed up without it.

That could well happen– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll tell you next how to keep away from possibly 90+% of the possible threat of getting your case messed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T hire a traditional Cincinnati divorce lawyer on a complete representation basis.

Your case might likewise possibly get messed up if you DID hire a complete representation Cincinnati divorce lawyer. That’s likewise not likely, but it could happen.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY happen if you hire a traditional complete representation Cincinnati divorce lawyer to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case might be managed extremely well, but you will overbuy unnecessary services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no requirement for that to happen nowadays. Your mothers and fathers had few other alternatives on their family law employing decisions. Your grandparents had no other alternatives. You have many legitimate alternatives to make your Cincinnati uncontested divorce lawyer employing choice based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Cincinnati divorce attorneys. Read on.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the most significant threat you encounter in your employing choice in regards to damage to your future legal and financial security. Non-lawyer online divorce is a substantial market. And it is exceptionally dangerous to your legal and financial future.

Online divorce mills provide slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software application, charges lower than MOST attorneys, no legal guidance, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance coverage, no knowledge of Hamilton County divorce policies, no local knowledge about Hamilton County rules of court, local Hamilton County documents, local practices or the policies of specific local judges in the Cincinnati area and no professional interest in you or your case. And all within a totally unregulated Wild-West market widespread with all kinds of incompetence, price fraud, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill charges average about $300, but what you get for that $300 cost is incredibly little– just prepared Ohio divorce documents. Any other services supplied are all up-sold on the basis that when they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – leave cash already spent? You are at their mercy and you are completely unguarded. And they recognize it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s website for a great assessment of merely some of the more typical frauds and up-sells to be experienced in the online divorce market.

If you employ an online divorce mill, you’ll always be contending with low-level, inexperienced, disinterested, high turn-over staff, call center workers and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. Nobody will conduct any type of analysis on your case to secure you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Client assistance will be dreadful since it doesn’t need to be anything else. You will never be able to meet anybody at an online divorce mill as it is highly likely that none of them are located in Cincinnati or even in Ohio

If you employ an online divorce mill thinking you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your household end up spending for their mistakes for several 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 most recent risk to steer clear of in your Cincinnati divorce lawyer employing decision.

Nevertheless, the possible damage here is not big– 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 Cincinnati divorce lawyer you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to overpay to some extent, depending on just how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, but not as badly as if you had actually employed a traditional complete representation Cincinnati family law lawyer directly.

Obviously, you do not want to hire a traditional complete representation Cincinnati divorce lawyer you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would intensify your over-payment, but the essential aspect here is that you do not want to hire a traditional complete representation Cincinnati divorce lawyer to manage your basic uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The threat with employing a Cincinnati divorce lawyer that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re hiring a mediocre Cincinnati divorce lawyer– a drone who just stands in line with all other Cincinnati divorce attorneys and HOPES that s/he will get your business but does nothing to distinguish himself or herself from the Cincinnati lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to influence you that s/he is the unequalled resolution to your case. You do not want to have that lawyer.

You want a Cincinnati divorce lawyer who is imaginative, bold, unique, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you employ a Cincinnati divorce lawyer to take care of your own legal and financial interests when s/he does not even look after his/her own law practice interests strongly and decisively? You’re searching for a divorce lawyer who intentionally sets himself or herself apart from the Cincinnati lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with Avvo and doing nothing else.

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

Nevertheless, you need to not believe that such a Cincinnati divorce lawyer is very good or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free for the lawyer to join, the lawyer must then begin to pay continually increasing charges on a bid-basis, always competing against other local Hamilton County divorce attorneys, to be seen on the leading 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 charges, she’ll not get enough cases to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the leading very few attorneys in each town taking almost all the business– based upon just how much marketing charges 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 business is the quantity of cash s/he is prepared to pay to get it, not the quality and distinctiveness of his/her service offerings.

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

The Cincinnati divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will always require more and more lower revenue cases just to keep up with business costs. You do not desire that business-foolishness in someone you will rely on with your legal and financial future.

And yes, that lawyer is going to utilize the exact 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 Cincinnati Divorce Lawyer – Cincinnati DIvorce Lawyer | Ohio Family Law Attorney

So above are 4 factors to stay clear of: DIY divorce, traditional full-service lawyer representation in basic uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and uninspiring me-too drone attorneys who are really bad at business.

So what do you in fact seek in a Cincinnati divorce lawyer?

Before I inform you, I want to set the stage by offering you 2 amazing statistics that I did not presume true when I first saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you need to maximize them in your Cincinnati divorce lawyer selection 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 Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Cincinnati divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this indicates that you only pay for the legal services your case requires. You will generally 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 submitted to court, recognize problem issues in your case and suggest the best alternatives based upon legal guidance and local knowledge. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services and you can see that they do not understand or do not desire you to understand, just hang up. They do not yet get it. Carry on. Don’t inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that allows you to log into a client portal and inputall of the information in your case.  This not only saves money and time, but it actually empowers you in your own case. You are the source of all datain your case. Also, there’s no 50-page paper 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 Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Cincinnati. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Cincinnati. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati:

Dayton, Lexington, Louisville, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Toledo, Evansville, South Bend, Akron, Cleveland, Ann Arbor, Knoxville, Detroit, Farmington Hills, Warren, Clarksville, Nashville, Lansing, Sterling Heights, Chicago, Joliet, Murfreesboro, Pittsburgh, Naperville, Grand Rapids, Springfield, Elgin, Chattanooga, Erie, Saint Louis