How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Erie Pennsylvania?  - Erie DIvorce Lawyer | Pennsylvania Family Law Attorney

It’s a trick question. You don’t need to get the very best divorce lawyer or attorney in Erie, Pennsylvania There are plenty of divorce attorneys in Erie that would likely do an equally great effort for you. It would definitely be inconceivable to determine which one is the “absolute best.”

The correct question for you, the Erie divorce buyer, is the way to locate one of those Erie top-notch divorce lawyers at the appropriate standards of representation as well as expense for the realities of your unique scenario – while steering clear of all of the usual, as well as occasionally harmful, risks of the Erie divorce lawyer selection choice.

If you recognize what those risks are (I will tell you in this article) as well as if you have the right attitude, namely that you wish to make your Erie divorce lawyer fit your case as well as not allow the lawyer to force your case to fit his/her inflexible practice profile, then you enhance considerably your opportunities of nailing the Erie divorce lawyer hiring choice. Getting you through that selection successfully is the objective of this article.

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

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire totally free family law documents from Pennsylvania’s judicial council or family court internet sites. Those totally free divorce documents will be blank, obviously. You can then attempt to complete as well as file the documents at your neighborhood Erie County divorce court on your own without expert assistance. This is possible – however highly improbable, really challenging, complex, discouraging as well as extremely time-consuming.

Do it yourself divorce would certainly be effectively impossible, as well as not smart even to attempt, in any type of  elaborate or contested family law case. It would certainly be highly improbable to be successful if you have minor children of the marriage or have any type of property or financial obligations to be itemized in case or have custody, visitation or assistance arrangements in your case. It would definitely be foolish in a matter involving domestic violence. Do it yourself would certainly likewise be challenging if you have a job or if you put any sort of worth on your own time. Family law forms as well as processeses are created by lawyers to perplex you so that you employ – a lawyer.

Please excuse me if I don’t spend excessive time on the do it yourself danger. My experience on the cutting edge of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that folks that start the divorce process with the intent to attempt to get a totally free divorce are most likely to  attempt Do-It-Yourself divorce whatever. For some reason, most likely economic, there is absolutely nothing I‘ve been able to discover to persuade them not to.

DIY in Family Law is typically false economy. You WILL probably screw it up, as well as screwed-up proceedings are far more problematic as well as expensive to correct as well as complete. Don’t play this game. The system is created by lawyers to perplex you as well as force you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are now economical alternatives offered– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is merely one in which the participants will not be challenging any type of concerns, including the divorce itself. The participants don’t need to be cheerful as well as they don’t need to like each other. They are either entirely or generally in agreement on all concerns as well as are smart enough to acknowledge that conventional full-representation divorce lawyers (with massive retainers as well as billable hrs) would certainly be the only winners if they contested relatively insignificant concerns in their divorce.

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

If you have a disputed matter, a complicated matter, a high-value matter or a matter that involves domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, complete representation by a Erie divorce lawyer is NOT to be evaded. It is a requirement.

A disputed matter signifies that you as well as your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter has legal complexities such as tax concerns, current business concerns, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of many other intricate legal scenarios. A high-value case means that your marital estate is huge. There is no specific dollar limit. Certainly, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or greater, that is a high-value matter.

If you suspect that you have a disputed,complicated or high-value matter, you do. Work with an experienced as well as expensive Erie divorce lawyer for complete conventional representation. Try to find a certified Family Law specialist. You will 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 Erie divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, complete legal representation by a Erie divorce lawyer becomes a threat to your economic position. Avoid it.

Obviously, if you call or email a conventional Erie divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not require their complete representation service. In fact, they will attempt to frighten the crap out of you by informing you that you without a doubt need their service and that your case will get screwed up without it.

That might transpire– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll inform you next how to keep away from perhaps 90+% of the potential danger of getting your case screwed up if you don’t go DIY and you DON’T employ a conventional Erie divorce lawyer on a complete representation basis.

Your case could also perhaps get screwed up if you DID employ a complete representation Erie divorce lawyer. That’s also not likely, however it could take place.

However, what will DEFINITELY take place if you employ a conventional complete representation Erie divorce lawyer to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case might be dealt with extremely well, however you will overbuy excessive services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no need for that to take place any longer. Your parents had few other alternatives on their family law hiring choices. Your grandparents had no other alternatives. You have many legitimate alternatives to make your Erie uncontested divorce lawyer hiring selection based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Erie divorce lawyers. Read on.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is without a doubt the most significant threat you are confronted by in your hiring selection in regards to damage to your future legal and economic safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a big industry. And it is extremely harmful to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills use slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software application, costs lower than MOST lawyers, no legal suggestions, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of ethics, no malpractice insurance coverage, no understanding of Erie County divorce policies, no regional understanding about Erie County guidelines of court, regional Erie County forms, regional practices or the policies of individual regional judges in the Erie area and no professional interest in you or your case. And all within a completely uncontrolled Wild-West industry widespread with all type of incompetence, price fraud, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill costs average about $300, however what you get for that $300 fee is incredibly little– just prepared Pennsylvania divorce documents. Any other services delivered are all up-sold on the basis that when they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – walk away from money already invested? You are at their whim and you are entirely unguarded. And they realize it!

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

If you employ an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be contending with low-level, inexperienced, indifferent, high turn-over personnel, call center employees 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 protect you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Client assistance will be awful since it doesn’t need to be anything else. You will never ever have the ability to meet with anyone at an online divorce mill as it is most likely that none are located in Erie and even in Pennsylvania

If you employ an online divorce mill believing you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your household wind up paying for their mistakes for years, that is NOT an inexpensive 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 latest pitfall to steer clear of in your Erie divorce lawyer hiring choice.

However, the potential damage 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 Erie divorce lawyer you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to overpay to some extent, depending on how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, however not as severely as if you had actually hired a conventional complete representation Erie family law lawyer straight up.

Undoubtedly, you don’t want to employ a conventional complete representation Erie divorce lawyer you discover on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, however the essential element here is that you don’t want to employ a conventional complete representation Erie divorce lawyer to handle your simple uncontested divorce, no matter where you discover that lawyer!!

The danger with hiring a Erie divorce lawyer that you find ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re working with a run-of-the-mill Erie divorce lawyer– a drone who just stands in line with all other Erie divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your business however does nothing to differentiate himself or herself from the Erie lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to convince you that s/he is the standout solution to your case. You don’t wish to have that lawyer.

You would like a Erie divorce lawyer who is imaginative, vibrant, unique, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you employ a Erie divorce lawyer to take care of your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even care for his/her own business interests strongly and decisively? You’re trying to find a divorce lawyer who intentionally sets himself or herself apart from the Erie lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by joining Avvo and doing nothing else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are free to join, which is why every divorce lawyer in Erie County will have registered. So you need to not disqualify a Erie divorce lawyer just because s/he has an Avvo account.

However, you need to not presume that such a Erie divorce lawyer is really good or business-savvy either. The issue is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free for the lawyer to enroll in, the lawyer will need to then start to pay constantly increasing costs on a bid-basis, constantly contending against other regional Erie County divorce lawyers, 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 costs, she’ll not get enough trade to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the leading really few lawyers in each town taking almost all cases– based on how much advertising costs they can pay– not based on how good they are or on how they have actually configured their offerings to fit your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your case 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 Erie 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 getting business will continuously rise while his/her costs are relatively fixed by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Erie divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will constantly require increasingly more lower profit cases just to stay on top of business costs. You don’t desire that business-foolishness in somebody you will trust with your legal and economic future.

And yes, that lawyer is going to use the 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 Erie Divorce Lawyer – Erie DIvorce Lawyer | Pennsylvania Family Law Attorney

So above are 4 things to avoid: do it yourself divorce, traditional full-service lawyer representation in simple uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone lawyers who are truly bad at business.

So what do you in fact look for in a Erie divorce lawyer?

Before I tell you, I want to set the stage by providing you 2 remarkable 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 Erie divorce lawyer selection choice:

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 Erie 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 Erie divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Erie divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this denotes that you just purchase the legal services your case actually requires. 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 evaluate your docs before they are submitted to court, identify problem concerns in your case and recommend the best alternatives based upon legal suggestions and regional understanding. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can see that they don’t understand or don’t desire you to understand, just hang up. They don’t yet get it. Move 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 conserves time and money, but it in fact empowers you in your own case. You are the source of all informationin your case. Likewise, 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 Erie 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 Erie lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Erie. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Erie. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Erie 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 Erie:

Buffalo, Cleveland, Akron, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Warren, Sterling Heights, Farmington Hills, Toledo, Ann Arbor, Syracuse, Lansing, Allentown, Baltimore, Fort Wayne, Dayton, Washington, D. C., Alexandria, Grand Rapids, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Paterson, Edison, South Bend, Elizabeth, Newark, Jersey City, New York City, Yonkers, Stamford