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

It’s a trick question. You do not need to get the most effective divorce lawyer or attorney in Lancaster, California There are plenty of divorce attorneys in Lancaster that will do a just as fine job for you. It would be out of the question to ascertain which one is the “absolute best.”

The real question for you, the Lancaster divorce client, is precisely how to identify just one of those Lancaster top-notch divorce lawyers at the appropriate levels of representation and price for the aspects of your specific scenario – while avoiding every one of the common, and occasionally dangerous, risks of the Lancaster divorce lawyer hiring choice.

If you understand what those risks are (I will certainly advise you in this article) and if you have the correct attitude, specifically that you wish to make your Lancaster divorce lawyer fit your instance and not allow the attorney to force your instance to fit his/her rigid practice profile, then you boost significantly your possibilities of nailing the Lancaster divorce lawyer hiring choice. Getting you through that choice efficiently is the objective of this blog post.

To start with, let’s specify the 4 things to stay clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is entirely possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download totally free family law forms from California’s judicial council or family court websites. Those totally free divorce forms are going to be uncompleted, obviously. You can then attempt to finish and submit the forms at your regional Los Angeles County divorce court on your own without specialist aid. This is feasible – nevertheless extremely unlikely, extremely challenging, complex, discouraging and extremely lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would certainly be effectively impossible, and not smart even to try, in any kind of  complicated or disputed family law proceedings. It would certainly be extremely unlikely to be successful if you have minor children of the marriage or have any kind of property or financial debts to be detailed in the case or have custody, visitation or assistance agreements in your proceedings. It would absolutely be ill-advised in a case involving domestic physical violence. Do it yourself would certainly additionally be hard if you have a job or if you put any kind of worth on your own time. Family law forms and processeses are made by lawyers to puzzle you to ensure that you employ – a lawyer.

Please excuse me if I do not 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 people that start the divorce process with the intent to attempt to get a free divorce are most likely to  attempt Do-It-Yourself divorce no matter what. For one reason or another, possibly financial, there is absolutely nothing I‘ve had the ability to discover to encourage them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is always fake economy. You WILL probably screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are much more difficult and really expensive to remedy and conclude. Do not play this game. The system is made by lawyers to puzzle you and force you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are now affordable options available– see below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

 

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

An uncontested divorce is simply one in which the litigants will not be challenging any kind of concerns, including the divorce itself. The litigants do not have to be happy and they do not have to care for each other. They are either entirely or mainly in agreement on all concerns and are smart enough to acknowledge that standard full-representation divorce lawyers (with big retainers and billable hrs) would certainly be the only winners if they disputed reasonably trivial concerns in their divorce.

Lancaster DIvorce Lawyer | California Family Law AttorneyStandard full representation by a neighborhood Lancaster divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all aspects of your divorce litigation. It is extremely likely to be a good service, yet it is really expensive.

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

A disputed matter indicates that you and your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the matter. A complicated matter includes legal intricacies such as tax concerns, active business concerns, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of numerous other intricate legal scenarios. A high-value case denotes that your marital estate is large. There is no particular dollar limit. Certainly, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or higher, that is a high-value matter.

If you believe that you have a contested,complex or high-value matter, you do. Employ an expert and expensive Lancaster divorce lawyer for full conventional 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 conventional full representation by a Lancaster divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, full legal representation by a Lancaster divorce lawyer becomes a threat to your financial position. Steer clear of it.

Obviously, if you call or email a traditional Lancaster divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not require their full representation service. In fact, they will attempt to scare the crap out of you by sharing with you that you absolutely are in need of their service and that your case will get screwed up without it.

That might come to pass– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll share with you next how to prevent potentially 90+% of the possible danger of getting your case screwed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T employ a traditional Lancaster divorce attorney on a complete representation basis.

Your case might likewise potentially get screwed up if you DID employ a complete representation Lancaster divorce attorney. That’s likewise not probable, but it could possibly occur.

However, what will DEFINITELY occur if you employ a traditional full representation Lancaster divorce attorney to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case may be dealt with very well, but you will overbuy unnecessary services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no need for that to occur any longer. Your parents had few other options on their family law hiring options. Your grandparents had no other options. You have many legitimate options to make your Lancaster uncontested divorce lawyer hiring choice based upon the nature and truths of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Lancaster divorce lawyers. Read on.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the biggest danger you face in your hiring choice in regards to damage to your future legal and financial safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a huge market. And it is extremely dangerous to your legal and financial future.

Online divorce mills offer slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software applications, charges lower than MOST lawyers, no legal guidance, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of ethics, no malpractice insurance coverage, no understanding of Los Angeles County divorce policies, no local understanding about Los Angeles County guidelines of court, local Los Angeles County forms, local practices or the policies of individual local judges in the Lancaster local area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within an entirely uncontrolled Wild-West market widespread with all kinds of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill charges average about $300, but what you get for that $300 fee is remarkably little– simply prepared California divorce forms. Any other services provided are all up-sold on the basis that as soon as they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – walk away from money already invested? You are at their mercy and you are entirely unprotected. And they know it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s website for a good review of just a few of the more common frauds and up-sells to be discovered in the online divorce market.

If you hire an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be contending with low-level, inexperienced, disinterested, high turn-over personnel, 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 safeguard you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Customer assistance will be terrible since it does not have to be anything else. You will never ever be able to meet anyone at an online divorce mill as it is highly likely that none are located in Lancaster and even in California

If you employ an online divorce mill believing you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your family end up paying for their mistakes for years, that is NOT a cheap 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 newest pitfall to stay clear of in your Lancaster divorce lawyer hiring choice.

However, 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 Lancaster divorce attorney you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to overpay to some extent, depending upon just how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, but not as badly as if you had actually hired a traditional full representation Lancaster family law attorney straight up.

Clearly, you do not wish to employ a traditional full representation Lancaster divorce attorney you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would intensify your over-payment, but the important aspect here is that you do not wish to employ a traditional full representation Lancaster divorce attorney to manage your simple uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

Lancaster DIvorce Lawyer | California Family Law AttorneyThe danger with hiring a Lancaster divorce attorney that you find ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re working with a mediocre Lancaster divorce attorney– a drone who simply stands in line with all other Lancaster divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your trade but does nothing to set apart himself or herself from the Lancaster lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to influence you that s/he is the best resolution to your case. You do not want that lawyer.

You want to get a Lancaster divorce lawyer who is creative, bold, one-of-a-kind, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you employ a Lancaster divorce lawyer to care for your own legal and financial interests when s/he does not even look after his/her own business interests strongly and decisively? You’re searching for a divorce lawyer who intentionally sets himself or herself apart from the Lancaster lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by joining 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 Los Angeles County will have joined. So you should not disqualify a Lancaster divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

However, you should not consider that such a Lancaster divorce lawyer is extremely intelligent or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free of cost for the lawyer to enroll in, the lawyer needs to then start to pay continuously increasing charges on a bid-basis, constantly competing versus other local Los Angeles County divorce lawyers, to be seen on the top page of the platform’s website. If that lawyer does not 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 does not keep bidding up his/her charges, she’ll not get enough clients to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top extremely few lawyers in each town taking almost all the business– based upon just how much advertising charges they can pay– not based upon how excellent they are or on how they have 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 distinctiveness of his/her service offerings.

If that me-too divorce lawyer in Lancaster 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, but his/her costs of getting cases will continuously rise while his/her charges are reasonably fixed by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Lancaster divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play game will constantly require more and more lower revenue cases simply to stay on top of business costs. You do not want 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 business into the ground.

How to Find the Best Lancaster Divorce Lawyer – Lancaster DIvorce Lawyer | California Family Law Attorney

So above are 4 problems to keep clear of: do it yourself divorce, conventional full-service lawyer representation in simple uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone lawyers who are actually bad at the business of law practice.

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

Lancaster DIvorce Lawyer | California Family Law AttorneyBefore I advise you, I wish to set the stage by giving you two remarkable data that I did not presume true when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you really need to maximize them in your Lancaster divorce lawyer employing 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 Lancaster 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 Lancaster divorce attorney:

  1. Licensed local Lancaster divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
  2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this suggests that you just buy 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 evaluate your docs before they are submitted to court, recognize problem concerns in your case and suggest the very best options based upon legal guidance and local understanding. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can determine they do not understand or do not want you to understand, simply hang up. They do not yet get it. Carry on. Do not educate them.
  3. Uses online divorce software that allows you to log into a client portal and inputall of the details 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 complete 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 Lancaster 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 Lancaster lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Lancaster. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Lancaster. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Lancaster 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 Lancaster:

Santa Clarita, Burbank, Pasadena, El Monte, West Covina, Los Angeles, Simi Valley, Victorville, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Inglewood, Downey, Thousand Oaks, Norwalk, Fontana, Fullerton, Rialto, Torrance, Anaheim, San Bernardino, Long Beach, Garden Grove, Orange, Corona, Riverside, Santa Ana, Bakersfield, Oxnard, Ventura

 

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If you’ve made the difficult personal decision to terminate your marriage or to seek other critical family law relief, you should proceed at your pace and at your comfort level.

So continue to think and please keep us in mind. We know you’ll remember 1-800-DIVORCE.

Remember also that you want a bold competitive divorce lawyer who stands out from the me-too lawyer-crowd. You don’t want a lawyer to look after your legal and economic future if s/he doesn’t even compete and look after his or her own future.

…including emergency orders, disclosure laws, negotiation of settlements and trial work but also in mediation or collaborative law – should your case be suitable for those methods either now or later on.

Non-lawyer online divorce providers only provide the most basic divorce papers. For you to obtain any additional services through a non-lawyer, they would have to make a cold referral to a lawyer in your area.

Why not start off with the best divorce lawyer near me, such as your local 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer, who will already know the facts and issues of your case if additional services become necessary?

Use 1-800-DIVORCE to find the best divorce lawyer near me.

Your local 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer is required to maintain a professional and confidential relationship with you.  S/he is required to handle your case with the highest ethical standards.  S/he is required to take continuing legal education and professional responsibility courses.

Non-lawyer online divorce providers are NOT staffed by lawyers.  They are not licensed or bonded.  They get on-the-job training only! You will have no effective recourse should you be treated dishonestly or incompetently by an online provider.

Search for “online divorce problems” and you will have plenty to read.  Many online providers are truly terrible.  A few are downright fraudulent. If you get caught with a bad one, you will need a lawyer, and much more money, just to get your case sorted.

Don’t take that risk when a local solution exists at a similar cost.  Use 1-800-DIVORCE to find the best divorce lawyer near me.

A non-lawyer online divorce provider will likely be located far away and will be clueless about your state’s laws and your local Rules of Court. Online divorce providers claim to know how to handle divorces in all 3000+ counties in the US – an impossibility.

You can make an appointment to see your local 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer if the need arises. 

If you hire a non-lawyer online divorce provider, it will be the blind leading the blind. And when things go wrong, which they will, you will never get face time with that online provider and you will rarely be able to reach them on the phone or by email. Find a local divorce lawyer. Find the best divorce lawyer near me.

If you hire an unregulated online divorce outfit for $300-$1000 and end up paying for their mistakes forever, that’s NOT a cheap divorce.

Divorce is tough enough already! Don’t go it alone. Find the best  divorce lawyer near me through 1-800-DIVORCE.

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