How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in New Orleans Louisiana?  - Divorce & Family Law in New Orleans

It’s a trick question. You do not need to identify the very best divorce lawyer in New Orleans, Louisiana There are lots of divorce lawyers in New Orleans who would certainly do an equally good job for you. It would be impracticable to determine which one is the “very best.”

The real question for you, the New Orleans divorce buyer, is the way to identify one of those New Orleans top divorce attorneys at the correct levels of representation and expense for the realities of your unique case – while keeping away from all of the usual, and sometimes hazardous, challenges of the New Orleans divorce attorney selection decision.

If you recognize what those challenges are (I will advise you in this short article) and if you have the appropriate mindset, particularly that you want to make your New Orleans divorce attorney fit your situation and not enable the attorney to force your situation to fit his/her inflexible practice profile, after that you enhance significantly your chances of nailing the New Orleans divorce attorney employing decision. Getting you through that selection efficiently is the objective of this blog post.

To begin with, let’s mention the 4 points to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is feasible, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire totally free family law documents from Louisiana’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those totally free divorce documents are going to be blank, of course. You can then try to complete and file the documents at your neighborhood Orleans Parish divorce court on your own without specialist help. This is possible – nevertheless very improbable, very difficult, complicated, aggravating and incredibly slow.

DIY divorce would be effectively out of the question, and not sensible even to try, in any type of  elaborate or disputed family law case. It would be very improbable to be successful if you have minor children of the marital relationship or have any type of assets or financial obligations to be specified in case or have custody, visitation or support settlements in your proceedings. It would certainly be foolish in a matter entailing domestic violence. DIY would also be tough if you have a job or if you put any kind of worth on your own time. Family law forms and procedures are made by attorneys to confuse you to ensure that you hire – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I do not spend too much time on the DIY danger. My experience on the cutting edge of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that people who start the divorce process with the intent to try to get a totally free divorce are most likely to  try Do-It-Yourself divorce no matter what. For some reason, probably economic, there is nothing I have actually been able to discover to encourage them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is always fake saving. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are much more challenging and costly to remedy and conclude. Don’t play this game. The system is made by attorneys to confuse you and force you to employ a divorce attorney. There are currently affordable choices readily available– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is just one in which the participants will not be disputing any type of concerns, including the divorce itself. The participants do not have to be cheerful and they do not have to care for each other. They are either entirely or mostly in agreement on all concerns and are sensible enough to realize that traditional full-representation divorce attorneys (with substantial retainers and billable hrs) would be the only victors if they disputed reasonably inconsequential concerns in their divorce.

Traditional full representation by a local New Orleans divorce attorney is when that attorney will represent you in all parts of your divorce case. It is very likely to be an excellent professional service, yet it is very expensive.

If you have a contested matter, a complex matter, a high-value matter or a matter that includes domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, full representation by a New Orleans divorce attorney is NOT to be refrained from. It is a necessity.

A contested matter indicates that you and your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the matter. A complicated matter has legal intricacies such as tax concerns, active business concerns, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of many other complicated legal scenarios. A high-value case indicates that your marital estate is very large. There is no specific dollar limit. Definitely, 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. Hire an experienced and expensive New Orleans divorce attorney for full conventional representation. Search for a certified Family Law specialist. You will not be sorry you did.

If you do NOT have a contested, complex, high-value or domestic violence case, you do NOT need conventional full representation by a New Orleans divorce attorney. In fact, under those conditions, full legal representation by a New Orleans divorce attorney becomes a danger to your economic position. Avoid it.

Of course, if you call or email a conventional New Orleans divorce attorney, they will not tell you that you do not need their full representation service. In fact, they will try to frighten the crap out of you by telling you that you definitely need to have their service and that your case will get screwed up without it.

That could occur– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll inform you next how to stay clear of perhaps 90+% of the potential danger of getting your case screwed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T employ a conventional New Orleans divorce attorney on a complete representation basis.

Your case might likewise perhaps get screwed up if you DID employ a complete representation New Orleans divorce attorney. That’s likewise not probable, however it could possibly take place.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY take place if you employ a conventional full representation New Orleans divorce attorney to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case might be managed extremely well, however you will overbuy excessive services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no requirement for that to take place any longer. Your mothers and fathers had few other choices on their family law employing decisions. Your grandparents had no other choices. You have numerous valid choices to make your New Orleans uncontested divorce attorney employing selection based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of New Orleans divorce attorneys. Keep reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is without a doubt the most significant threat you face in your employing selection in terms of damage to your future legal and economic security. Non-lawyer online divorce is a big industry. And it is incredibly hazardous to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills offer slick sites, wicked-cool divorce computer 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 coverage, no knowledge of Orleans Parish divorce procedures, no regional knowledge about Orleans Parish rules of court, regional Orleans Parish forms, regional practices or the policies of specific regional judges in the New Orleans local area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within an entirely uncontrolled Wild-West industry widespread with all sort of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill charges average about $300, however what you get for that $300 cost is extremely little– simply prepared Louisiana 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 cash already invested? You are at their whim and you are entirely unprotected. And they recognize it!

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

If you hire 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 carry out any type of analysis on your case to protect you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Client support will be dreadful because it doesn’t have to be anything else. You will never be able to meet with anybody at an online divorce mill as it is very likely that none are located in New Orleans and even in Louisiana

If you hire an online divorce mill believing you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your family wind up paying 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 newest mistake to steer clear of in your New Orleans divorce lawyer employing decision.

Nevertheless, the potential damage here is not huge– nowhere near the damage done regularly by non-lawyer online divorce mills or indeed the damage most likely to be done by you to your own case with DIY divorce.

If you hire a New Orleans 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, however not as severely as if you had actually employed a conventional full representation New Orleans family law attorney straight up.

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

The danger with employing a New Orleans divorce attorney that you discover ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re hiring a second-rate New Orleans divorce attorney– a drone who simply stands in line with all other New Orleans divorce attorneys and HOPES that s/he will get your trade however does nothing to differentiate himself or herself from the New Orleans lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to persuade you that s/he is the unequalled solution to your case. You do not want to have that lawyer.

You would like a New Orleans divorce lawyer who is innovative, vibrant, one-of-a-kind, stylish and business-savvy. In fact, why would you hire a New Orleans divorce lawyer to look after your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even care for his/her own law practice interests strongly and decisively? You’re searching for a divorce lawyer who purposefully sets himself or herself apart from the New Orleans 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 join, which is why every divorce lawyer in Orleans Parish will have joined. So you must not disqualify a New Orleans divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you must not assume that such a New Orleans divorce lawyer is very shrewd or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free of cost for the lawyer to join, the lawyer must then start to pay constantly increasing charges on a bid-basis, always competing against other regional Orleans Parish 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 charges, she’ll not get adequate trade to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the leading very few attorneys in each town taking almost all clients– based on how much marketing charges they can pay– not based on how good they are or on how they have actually configured their offerings to suit your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your case 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 New Orleans 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, however his/her expenses of doing business will continuously rise while his/her charges are reasonably fixed by the flat demand for consumer law services such as divorce.

The New Orleans divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will always need more and more lower profit cases simply to stay on top of business expenses. You do not desire that business-foolishness in someone you will rely on with your legal and economic future.

And yes, that lawyer is going to utilize the exact same brain to care for your case as s/he utilized to screw his/her own law practice into the ground.

How to Find the Best New Orleans Divorce Lawyer – Divorce & Family Law in New Orleans

So above are 4 factors to refrain from using: 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 law practice business.

So what do you in fact try to find in a New Orleans divorce attorney?

Before I advise you, I wish to set the stage by offering you two exceptional statistics that I did not believe when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you need to make the most of them in your New Orleans 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 New Orleans 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 New Orleans divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local New Orleans divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this suggests that you only buy the legal services your case needs. 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 review your docs before they are filed, recognize problem concerns in your case and suggest the best choices based upon legal suggestions and regional 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, simply hang up. They do not yet get it. Carry on. Don’t educate them.
3. Uses online divorce software that enables you to log into a client portal and inputall of the information in your case.  This not only conserves time and money, but it literally 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 New Orleans 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 New Orleans lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in New Orleans. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in New Orleans. Check here or complete the web form below to see if New Orleans 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 New Orleans:

Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Mobile, Jackson, Beaumont, Montgomery, Shreveport, Birmingham, Pearland, Houston, Columbus, Tallahassee, Tyler, Little Rock, Memphis, College Station, Huntsville, Atlanta, Macon, Mesquite, Sandy Springs, Waco, Garland, Dallas, Richardson, Plano, McKinney, Chattanooga, Grand Prairie, Carrollton