How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Fullerton California?  - Fullerton Divorce Lawyer | Fullerton Family Law Attorney

It’s a trick question. You do not want to locate the best divorce lawyer in Fullerton, California There are several divorce attorneys in Fullerton who would likely do an every bit as good undertaking for you. It would definitely be impossible to figure which one is the “very best.”

The real question for you, the Fullerton divorce client, is the way to identify just one of those Fullerton best divorce attorneys at the appropriate levels of representation as well as cost for the aspects of your unique case – while steering clear of every one of the typical, as well as sometimes harmful, risks of the Fullerton divorce lawyer hiring decision.

If you recognize what those risks are (I will tell you in this post) as well as if you have the right mindset, particularly that you intend to make your Fullerton divorce lawyer fit your case as well as not permit the attorney to force your case to fit his/her stiff practice profile, then you raise considerably your possibilities of nailing the Fullerton divorce lawyer hiring decision. Getting you through that decision successfully is the goal of this post.

First, let’s specify the 4 things to stay clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is feasible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download free family law documents from California’s judicial council or family court websites. Those free divorce documents will be blank, of course. You can then try to finish as well as record the documents at your local Orange County divorce court by yourself without professional aid. This is possible – nevertheless highly unlikely, extremely difficult, confusing, discouraging as well as very lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would be effectively unachievable, as well as not sensible even to try, in any  complicated or contested family law matter. It would be highly unlikely to be successful if you have minor children of the marriage or have any 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 case involving domestic violence. Do it yourself would additionally be hard 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 made by attorneys to puzzle you to ensure that you hire – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I do not invest excessive time on the DIY threat. My experience on the cutting edge of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that folks who begin the divorce process with the intent to try to get a totally free divorce are going to  try DIY divorce no matter what. Somehow, most likely economic, there is absolutely nothing I‘ve been able to discover to persuade them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is consistently fake affordability. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, as well as screwed-up matters are far more perplexing as well as costly to deal with as well as complete. Do not play this game. The system is made by attorneys to puzzle you as well as force you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are currently economical options readily available– see listed below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is just one in which the litigants will not be disputing any concerns, including the divorce itself. The litigants do not have to be cheerful as well as they do not have to care for each other. They are either entirely or generally in agreement on all concerns as well as are sensible enough to acknowledge that traditional full-representation divorce attorneys (with big retainers as well as billable hrs) would be the only winners if they contested fairly unimportant concerns in their divorce.

Conventional full representation by a local Fullerton divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all facets of your divorce litigation. It is highly likely to be a good service, yet it is way over-priced.

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

A contested matter indicates that you as well as your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter has legal intricacies such as tax concerns, current business concerns, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of countless additional complex legal situations. A high-value case indicates that your marital estate is large. There is no specific dollar limit. Absolutely, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or greater, that is a high-value matter.

If you believe that you have a disputed,complicated or high-value matter, you do. Work with an expert as well as high priced Fullerton divorce lawyer for full traditional 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 traditional full representation by a Fullerton divorce lawyer. In fact, under those circumstances, full legal representation by a Fullerton divorce lawyer ends up being a threat to your economic position. Steer clear of it.

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

That could possibly occur– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to stay away from possibly 90+% of the potential threat of getting your case screwed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T employ a traditional Fullerton divorce attorney on a complete representation basis.

Your case could likewise possibly get screwed up if you DID employ a complete representation Fullerton divorce attorney. That’s likewise not likely, but it could possibly take place.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY take place if you employ a traditional full representation Fullerton divorce attorney to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case might be handled very well, but you will overbuy unneeded services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no requirement for that to take place any longer. Your parents had few other options on their family law hiring options. Your grandparents had no other options. You have lots of legitimate options to make your Fullerton uncontested divorce lawyer hiring decision based upon the nature and truths of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Fullerton divorce attorneys. Read on.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the greatest risk you face in your hiring decision in terms of damage to your future legal and economic safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a big industry. And it is very harmful to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills provide slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software, fees lower than MOST attorneys, no legal advice, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance, no understanding of Orange County divorce procedures, no regional understanding about Orange County rules of court, regional Orange County forms, regional practices or the policies of specific regional judges in the Fullerton region and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within a completely uncontrolled Wild-West industry rampant with all kinds of incompetence, price fraud, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill fees average about $300, but what you get for that $300 charge is remarkably little– just prepared California 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 – ignore money already invested? 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 synopsis of merely some of the more typical scams and up-sells to be discovered in the online divorce industry.

If you hire an online divorce mill, you’ll always be dealing with low-level, inexperienced, indifferent, high turn-over personnel, call center workers and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. No one will perform any type of analysis on your case to protect you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Client support will be terrible because 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 highly likely that none of them lie in Fullerton or perhaps in California

If you hire an online divorce mill thinking you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your household end up spending for their errors 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 newest mistake to stay clear of in your Fullerton divorce lawyer hiring decision.

Nevertheless, the potential harm here is not significant– 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 hire a Fullerton divorce attorney 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, but not as terribly as if you had hired a traditional full representation Fullerton family law attorney straight up.

Undoubtedly, you do not want to employ a traditional full representation Fullerton divorce attorney you discover on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, but the important aspect here is that you do not want to employ a traditional full representation Fullerton divorce attorney to manage your basic uncontested divorce, no matter where you discover that lawyer!!

The threat with hiring a Fullerton divorce attorney that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re hiring a run-of-the-mill Fullerton divorce attorney– a drone who just stands in line with all other Fullerton divorce attorneys and HOPES that s/he will get your trade but does nothing to distinguish himself or herself from the Fullerton lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to convince you that s/he is the unequalled solution to your case. You do not wish to have that lawyer.

You would like a Fullerton divorce lawyer who is creative, strong, one-of-a-kind, stylish and business-savvy. In fact, why would you hire a Fullerton divorce lawyer to care for 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 Fullerton lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with Avvo and doing nothing else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are free of charge to join, which is why every divorce lawyer in Orange County will have signed up. So you need to not disqualify a Fullerton divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you need to not conclude that such a Fullerton divorce lawyer is extremely clever or business-savvy either. The issue is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free of charge for the lawyer to sign up, the lawyer must then begin to pay constantly increasing fees on a bid-basis, always contending against other regional Orange County divorce attorneys, 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 extremely few attorneys in each town taking almost all cases– based upon how much marketing fees they can pay– not based upon how great they are or on how they have 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 Fullerton pays more to the mass-lawyer finder company and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a highlighted position on the platform’s website and will get more sales, but his/her costs of working will constantly rise while his/her fees are fairly fixed by the flat demand for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Fullerton 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 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 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 Fullerton Divorce Lawyer – Fullerton Divorce Lawyer | Fullerton Family Law Attorney

So above are 4 concerns to stay away from: DIY divorce, old-fashioned full-service lawyer representation in basic uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and boring me-too drone attorneys who are truly bad at business.

So what do you actually look out for in a Fullerton divorce attorney?

Before I tell you, I want to set the stage by giving you 2 amazing statistics 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 Fullerton 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 Fullerton 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 Fullerton divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Fullerton divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this means that you only buy the legal services your case requires. You will usually 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, determine problem issues in your case and suggest the best options based upon legal advice and regional understanding. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services and you can tell they do not understand or do not want you to understand, just hang up. They do not yet get it. Move on. Do not inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that enables you to log into a client portal and enterall of the data 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 datain 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 Fullerton 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 Fullerton lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Fullerton. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Fullerton. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Fullerton has a 1-800-DIVORCE.

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