How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Lakeland Florida?  - Lakeland Divorce Lawyers - Local Family Law Firms in Lakeland

It’s a trick question. You do not want to identify the very best divorce attorney in Lakeland, Florida There are a lot of divorce attorneys in Lakeland that would certainly do an equally good effort for you. It would undoubtedly be inconceivable to figure which one is the “absolute best.”

The real question for you, the Lakeland divorce buyer, is exactly how to discover just one of those Lakeland top-notch divorce attorneys at the right levels of representation and also price for the facts of your certain scenario – while steering clear of all of the typical, and also often hazardous, pitfalls of the Lakeland divorce attorney hiring decision.

If you recognize what those pitfalls are (I will certainly advise you in this post) and also if you have the proper attitude, namely that you want to make your Lakeland divorce attorney fit your case and also not permit the attorney to force your case to fit his or her inflexible practice profile, after that you enhance greatly your opportunities of nailing the Lakeland divorce attorney employing decision. Getting you through that decision effectively is the objective of this post.

Initially, let’s note the 4 points to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is conceivable, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire free family law forms from Florida’s judicial council or family court sites. Those free divorce forms will be blank, obviously. You can at that point attempt to finish and also record the forms at your neighborhood Polk County divorce court by yourself without professional help. This is possible – nevertheless extremely unlikely, very difficult, confusing, discouraging and also exceptionally lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would be effectively unattainable, and also not smart even to try, in any type of  complicated or contested family law action. It would 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 listed in the case or have custody, visitation or support arrangements in your matter. It would absolutely be ill-advised in a matter involving domestic violence. Do it yourself would also 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 attorneys to puzzle you to make sure that you employ – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I do not invest excessive time on the do it yourself threat. My experience on the front lines of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that people that start the divorce process with the intent to attempt to get a cost-free divorce are most likely to  attempt Do-It-Yourself divorce regardless of what. For one reason or another, probably financial, there is absolutely nothing I‘ve been able to discover to convince them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is typically false affordability. You WILL probably screw it up, and also screwed-up matters are far more difficult and also expensive to deal with and also complete. Don’t play this game. The system is made by attorneys to puzzle you and also force you to hire a divorce attorney. There are now cost-efficient options available– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

2. Avoid Traditional Lakeland 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 type of problems, including the divorce itself. The litigants do not have to be happy and also they do not have to care for each other. They are either entirely or mostly in agreement on all problems and also are smart enough to realize that standard full-representation divorce attorneys (with substantial retainers and also billable hrs) would be the only victors if they contested reasonably insignificant problems in their divorce.

Standard complete representation by a regional Lakeland divorce attorney is when that attorney will represent you in all parts of your divorce matter. It is extremely likely to be a very good professional service, yet it is really expensive.

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

A contested matter denotes that you and also your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter consists of legal complexities such as tax problems, active business problems, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of many other intricate legal situations. A high-value case indicates that your marital estate is 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 matter.

If you think that you have a contested,complex or high-value matter, you do. Employ an experienced and also expensive Lakeland divorce attorney for complete traditional representation. Seek 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 traditional complete representation by a Lakeland divorce attorney. In fact, under those conditions, complete legal representation by a Lakeland divorce attorney ends up being a danger to your financial position. Stay clear of it.

Obviously, if you call or email a conventional Lakeland divorce attorney, 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 informing you that you completely need their service which your case will get messed up without it.

That could occur– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to keep away from perhaps 90+% of the potential threat of getting your case messed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T hire a conventional Lakeland divorce attorney on a full representation basis.

Your case could likewise perhaps get messed up if you DID hire a full representation Lakeland divorce attorney. That’s likewise not likely, but it could occur.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY occur if you hire a conventional complete representation Lakeland divorce attorney to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case may be managed effectively, but you will overbuy excessive services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no requirement for that to occur nowadays. Your parents had few other options on their family law employing decisions. Your grandparents had no other options. You have lots of legitimate options to make your Lakeland uncontested divorce attorney employing decision based upon the nature and truths of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Lakeland divorce attorneys. Keep reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the greatest threat you are confronted by in your employing decision in terms of damage to your future legal and financial safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a substantial industry. And it is exceptionally hazardous to your legal and financial future.

Online divorce mills use slick sites, wicked-cool divorce software, charges lower than MOST attorneys, no legal suggestions, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance, no knowledge of Polk County divorce procedures, no local knowledge about Polk County rules of court, local Polk County forms, local practices or the policies of individual local judges in the Lakeland local area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within a totally unregulated Wild-West industry widespread with all type of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill charges average about $300, but what you get for that $300 cost is remarkably little– just prepared Florida divorce forms. 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 – ignore cash already invested? You are at their whim and you are entirely unprotected. And they know it!

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

If you hire an online divorce mill, you’ll always be dealing 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 carry out any kind of analysis on your case to protect you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Customer support will be terrible because it doesn’t have to be anything else. You will never ever be able to consult with anybody at an online divorce mill as it is highly likely that none lie in Lakeland or perhaps in Florida

If you employ an online divorce mill thinking you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your family wind up paying for their errors for 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 Lakeland 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 indeed the damage likely to be done by you to your own case with DIY divorce.

If you employ a Lakeland 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 severely as if you had actually employed a conventional complete representation Lakeland family law attorney directly.

Obviously, you do not want to hire a conventional complete representation Lakeland divorce attorney you discover on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, but the essential aspect here is that you do not want to hire a conventional complete representation Lakeland divorce attorney to manage your easy uncontested divorce, no matter where you discover that lawyer!!

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

You want to have a Lakeland divorce lawyer who is imaginative, bold, distinct, stylish and business-savvy. In fact, why would you employ a Lakeland divorce lawyer to safeguard your own legal and financial interests when s/he does not even look after 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 Lakeland 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 to join, which is why every divorce lawyer in Polk County will have registered. So you must not disqualify a Lakeland divorce lawyer just because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you must not think that such a Lakeland divorce lawyer is very shrewd or business-savvy either. The issue is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free for the lawyer to sign up, the lawyer must then start to pay continuously increasing charges on a bid-basis, always competing against other local Polk County divorce attorneys, to be seen on the top page of the platform’s site. If that lawyer doesn’t pay extra, 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 charges, she’ll not get sufficient trade to stay in business.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top very few attorneys in each town taking almost all cases– based on how much advertising charges they can pay– not based on how good they are or on how they have configured their offerings to fit your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your trade is the amount of cash s/he is prepared to pay to get it, not the quality and distinctiveness of his or her service offerings.

If that me-too divorce lawyer in Lakeland pays more to the mass-lawyer finder company and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a highlighted position on the platform’s site and will get more cases, but his or her expenses of getting cases will continuously increase while his or her charges are reasonably set by the flat demand for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Lakeland divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play game will always require a growing number of lower profit cases just to keep up with sales expenses. You do not want that business-foolishness in somebody you will trust with your legal and financial future.

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

How to Find the Best Lakeland Divorce Lawyer – Lakeland Divorce Lawyers - Local Family Law Firms in Lakeland

So above are 4 concerns to stay clear of: do it yourself divorce, conventional full-service lawyer representation in easy uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and boring me-too drone attorneys who are really bad at business.

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

Before I advise you, I want to set the stage by giving you 2 exceptional data that I did not believe when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you need to maximize them in your Lakeland 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 Lakeland 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 Lakeland divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Lakeland 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 actually requires. You will usually do your own filing of docs at court and schedule the service of filed docs on your spouse/partner. The divorce lawyer will examine your docs before they are submitted to court, recognize problem issues in your case and recommend the very best options based upon legal suggestions 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 want you to understand, just hang up. They do not yet get it. Carry on. Don’t educate 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 money and time, 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 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 Lakeland 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 Lakeland lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Lakeland. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Lakeland. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Lakeland 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 Lakeland:

Tampa, Saint Petersburg, Orlando, Clearwater, Palm Bay, Cape Coral, Port Saint Lucie, Gainesville, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville, Coral Springs, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Hollywood, Hialeah, Miami, Tallahassee, Savannah, Macon, Charleston, North Charleston, Columbus, Augusta, Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Atlanta, Sandy Springs