How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in New York City New York?  - New York City Divorce Lawyers - Local Family Law Firms in New York City

It’s a trick question. You don’t want to find the absolute best divorce attorney in New York City, New York There are a lot of divorce attorneys in New York City who would do an equally great job for you. It would definitely be impossible to ascertain which one is the “very best.”

The correct concern for you, the New York City divorce client, is just how to find just one of those New York City top-notch divorce lawyers at the precise standards of assistance and price for the realities of your particular circumstances – while avoiding every one of the usual, and occasionally hazardous, risks of the New York City divorce lawyer hiring choice.

If you understand what those risks are (I will certainly tell you in this short article) and if you have the correct attitude, namely that you want to make your New York City divorce lawyer fit your situation and not enable the attorney to require your situation to fit his/her stiff practice profile, after that you increase significantly your chances of nailing the New York City divorce lawyer employing choice. Getting you through that choice effectively is the goal of this post.

To start with, let’s mention the 4 aspects to avoid:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download totally free family law forms from New York’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those totally free divorce forms will be blank, obviously. You can at that point attempt to complete and submit the forms at your local New York County divorce court on your own without specialist assistance. This is possible – nevertheless very unlikely, really challenging, complex, irritating and extremely slow.

Do it yourself divorce would be effectively unattainable, and not wise even to try, in any type of  complicated or contended family law action. It would be very unlikely to be effective if you have minor children of the marital relationship or have any type of property or financial debts to be specified in the case or have custody, visitation or support settlements in your case. It would definitely be risky in a case involving domestic physical violence. Do it yourself would also be tough if you have a job or if you put any kind of value on your own time. Family law forms and processeses are made by lawyers to confuse you to ensure that you work with – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I don’t invest excessive time on the DIY threat. My experience on the front lines of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that individuals who start the divorce process with the intent to attempt to obtain a free divorce are going to  attempt Do-It-Yourself divorce regardless of what. For some reason, probably economic, there is absolutely nothing I have actually had the ability to discover to convince them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is typically fake saving. You WILL probably screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are much more problematic and expensive to deal with and conclude. Don’t play this game. The system is made by lawyers to confuse you and require you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are currently cost-efficient choices readily available– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is simply one in which the litigants will not be disputing any type of problems, including the divorce itself. The litigants don’t have to be pleased and they don’t have to care for each other. They are either completely or mostly in agreement on all problems and are wise enough to recognize that conventional full-representation divorce lawyers (with massive retainers and billable hrs) would be the only victors if they contended relatively trivial problems in their divorce.

Standard full representation by a local New York City divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all aspects of your divorce matter. It is very likely to be a very good service, but it is really expensive.

If you have a contested matter, a complicated matter, a high-value matter or a case that includes domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, full representation by a New York City divorce lawyer is NOT to be refrained from. It is a requirement.

A disputed matter indicates that you and your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the matter. A complicated matter contains legal intricacies such as tax problems, active business problems, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of numerous other complicated legal issues. 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 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 York City divorce lawyer for full traditional representation. Search for 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 need traditional full representation by a New York City divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, full legal representation by a New York City divorce lawyer ends up being a threat to your economic position. Avoid it.

Naturally, if you call or email a traditional New York City divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not need their full representation service. In fact, they will attempt to scare the crap out of you by advising you that you without a doubt require their service which your case will get messed up without it.

That could occur– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll tell you next how to steer clear of potentially 90+% of the possible threat of getting your case messed up if you don’t go DIY and you DON’T employ a traditional New York City divorce attorney on a full representation basis.

Your case could likewise potentially get messed up if you DID employ a full representation New York City divorce attorney. That’s likewise not likely, but it could possibly happen.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY happen if you employ a traditional full representation New York City divorce attorney to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case might be handled effectively, but you will overbuy unneeded services and you will pay too much for them.

There’s no requirement for that to happen anymore. Your parents had few other choices on their family law employing choices. Your grandparents had no other choices. You have lots of valid choices to make your New York City uncontested divorce lawyer employing choice based upon the nature and truths of your case, not upon the BMW payments of New York City divorce lawyers. Read on.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the biggest danger you are confronted by in your employing choice in regards to damage to your future legal and economic safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a huge industry. And it is extremely hazardous to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills offer slick websites, wicked-cool divorce computer software, charges lower than MOST lawyers, no legal suggestions, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance, no knowledge of New York County divorce procedures, no regional knowledge about New York County rules of court, regional New York County forms, regional practices or the policies of specific regional judges in the New York City local area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within a totally unregulated Wild-West industry rampant with all kinds of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill charges average about $300, but what you get for that $300 charge is incredibly little– just prepared New York 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 money already invested? You are at their whim and you are completely unprotected. And they realize it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s site for a very good assessment of just a few of the more common frauds and up-sells to be found in the online divorce industry.

If you employ an online divorce mill, you’ll always be dealing with low-level, untrained, disinterested, high turn-over personnel, call center employees 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 secure you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Customer support will be dreadful since it does not have to be anything else. You will never be able to meet anyone at an online divorce mill as it is most likely that none lie in New York City or perhaps in New York

If you work with an online divorce mill believing you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your household wind up spending for their mistakes for several 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 latest mistake to avoid in your New York City divorce lawyer employing choice.

Nevertheless, the possible damage here is not big– nowhere near the damage done regularly 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 work with a New York City divorce attorney you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to pay too much 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 employed a traditional full representation New York City family law attorney straight up.

Certainly, you don’t wish to employ a traditional full representation New York City divorce attorney you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, but the important aspect here is that you don’t wish to employ a traditional full representation New York City divorce attorney to handle your basic uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The threat with employing a New York City divorce attorney that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re working with an average New York City divorce attorney– a drone who just stands in line with all other New York City divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your trade but does nothing to set apart himself or herself from the New York City lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to persuade you that s/he is the unique resolution to your case. You don’t want that lawyer.

You could do with a New York City divorce lawyer who is innovative, strong, distinct, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you work with a New York City divorce lawyer to care for your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even take care of his/her own law practice interests aggressively and decisively? You’re looking for a divorce lawyer who intentionally sets himself or herself apart from the New York City lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with Avvo and not doing anything else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are totally free to join, which is why every divorce lawyer in New York County will have signed up. So you must not disqualify a New York City divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you must not conclude that such a New York City divorce lawyer is really intelligent or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are totally free for the lawyer to enroll in, the lawyer will need to then start to pay continually increasing charges on a bid-basis, always competing versus other regional New York County divorce lawyers, to be seen on the top page of the platform’s site. If that lawyer does not pay more, s/he’ll be on page 3 or 5 of the mass-lawyer site in even a medium-sized town. If that lawyer does not keep bidding up his/her charges, she’ll not get enough business to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top really few lawyers in each town taking almost all the business– based upon just how much marketing charges they can pay– not based upon how excellent 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 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 New York City 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 sales, but his/her expenses of working will continuously increase while his/her charges are relatively fixed by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The New York City divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will always need increasingly more lower revenue cases just to keep up with sales expenses. 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 utilize the very same brain to take care of your case as s/he utilized to screw his/her own law practice into the ground.

How to Find the Best New York City Divorce Lawyer – New York City Divorce Lawyers - Local Family Law Firms in New York City

So above are 4 factors to abstain from: DIY divorce, conventional full-service lawyer representation in basic uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone lawyers who are truly bad at the business of law practice.

So what do you in fact look for in a New York City divorce attorney?

Before I tell you, I wish to set the stage by offering you two remarkable statistics that I did not accept when I first saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you need to take full advantage of them in your New York City divorce lawyer hiring 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 New York City 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 York City divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local New York City divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this indicates that you just purchase the legal services your case actually requires. You will generally 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 filed, recognize problem issues in your case and recommend the best choices based upon legal suggestions and regional knowledge. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services and you can determine 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 enables you to log into a client portal and enterall of the data in your case.  This not only conserves money and time, but it literally 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 complete 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 York City 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 York City lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in New York City. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in New York City. Check here or complete the web form below to see if New York City 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 York City:

Elizabeth, Yonkers, Paterson, Edison, Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, Allentown, Philadelphia, Hartford, Providence, Worcester, Baltimore, Cambridge, Boston, Lowell, Syracuse, Washington, D. C., Manchester, Alexandria, Hampton, Virginia Beach, Newport News, Buffalo, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Pittsburgh, Erie, Akron