How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Norman Oklahoma?  - Norman Divorce Lawyer | Norman Family Law Attorney

It’s a trick question. You do not need to find the most effective divorce lawyer or attorney in Norman, Oklahoma There are several divorce lawyers in Norman that will do an every bit as excellent effort for you. It would undoubtedly be out of the question to decide which one is the “best.”

The real concern for you, the Norman divorce buyer, is precisely how to choose one of those Norman best divorce lawyers at the proper standards of representation and price for the facts of your particular scenario – while keeping away from every one of the typical, and in some cases unsafe, mistakes of the Norman divorce lawyer hiring decision.

If you recognize what those mistakes are (I will certainly inform you in this short article) and if you have the appropriate mindset, specifically that you wish to make your Norman divorce lawyer fit your instance and not enable the lawyer to force your instance to fit his/her rigid practice profile, after that you enhance greatly your possibilities of nailing the Norman divorce lawyer hiring decision. Getting you through that selection successfully is the objective of this blog post.

First, let’s mention the 4 traits to stay away from:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire totally free family law forms from Oklahoma’s judicial council or family court internet sites. Those totally free divorce forms will be uncompleted, of course. You can then try to complete and file the forms at your local Cleveland County divorce court on your own without expert help. This is possible – but very improbable, extremely challenging, complex, discouraging and extremely time-consuming.

DIY divorce would certainly be practically impossible, and not smart even to try, in any kind of  complicated or disputed family law matter. It would certainly be very improbable to be successful if you have minor children of the marriage or have any kind of assets or debts to be specified in the event or have custody, visitation or support settlements in your proceedings. It would absolutely be risky in a case entailing domestic violence. DIY would certainly likewise be challenging if you have a job or if you put any type of worth on your own time. Family law forms and processeses are designed by lawyers to perplex you so that you work with – a lawyer.

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 procedure with the intent to try to obtain a free divorce are most likely to  try Do-It-Yourself divorce regardless of what. For some reason, most likely economic, there is nothing I have actually been able to find to persuade them not to.

DIY in Family Law is always fake affordability. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are far more perplexing and really expensive to correct and conclude. Do not play this game. The system is designed by lawyers to perplex you and force you to hire a divorce lawyer. There are now cost-effective alternatives readily available– see below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is simply one in which the participants will not be challenging any kind of problems, including the divorce itself. The participants do not have to be cheerful and they do not have to like each other. They are either entirely or mainly in agreement on all problems and are smart enough to understand that conventional full-representation divorce lawyers (with big retainers and billable hrs) would certainly be the only winners if they disputed relatively inconsequential problems in their divorce.

Conventional full representation by a neighborhood Norman divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all facets of your divorce matter. It is very likely to be a very good professional service, however it is very expensive.

If you have a disputed case, a complex case, a high-value case or a case that includes domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, full representation by a Norman divorce lawyer is NOT to be evaded. It is a requirement.

A contested case denotes that you and your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the case. A complicated case contains legal complexities such as tax problems, current business problems, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of countless other intricate legal situations. A high-value case indicates that your marital estate is large. There is no particular dollar limit. Definitely, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or greater, that is a high-value case.

If you think that you have a disputed,complicated or high-value case, you do. Work with an experienced and expensive Norman divorce lawyer for full traditional representation. Look for a certified Family Law specialist. You will certainly not be sorry you did.

If you do NOT have a disputed, complex, high-value or domestic violence case, you do NOT need traditional full representation by a Norman divorce lawyer. In fact, under those circumstances, full legal representation by a Norman divorce lawyer ends up being a danger to your economic position. Stay clear of it.

Naturally, if you call or email a traditional Norman divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not need their full representation service. In fact, they will try to scare the crap out of you by informing you that you undeniably are in need of their service and that your case will get messed up without it.

That could come to pass– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll tell you next how to avoid possibly 90+% of the possible threat of getting your case messed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T hire a traditional Norman divorce lawyer on a full representation basis.

Your case could likewise possibly get messed up if you DID hire a full representation Norman divorce lawyer. That’s likewise not likely, however it could occur.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY occur if you hire a traditional full representation Norman divorce lawyer to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case might be handled effectively, however you will overbuy unneeded services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no requirement for that to occur anymore. Your parents had few other alternatives on their family law hiring choices. Your grandparents had no other alternatives. You have lots of valid alternatives to make your Norman uncontested divorce lawyer hiring selection based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Norman divorce lawyers. Continue reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is without a doubt the greatest risk you are confronted by in your hiring selection in terms of damage to your future legal and economic security. Non-lawyer online divorce is a substantial market. And it is extremely unsafe to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills provide slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software application, costs lower than MOST lawyers, no legal recommendations, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance, no knowledge of Cleveland County divorce policies, no regional knowledge about Cleveland County rules of court, regional Cleveland County forms, regional practices or the policies of specific regional judges in the Norman region and no professional interest in you or your case. And all within an entirely unregulated Wild-West market widespread with all kinds of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill costs average about $300, however what you get for that $300 charge is incredibly little– simply prepared Oklahoma divorce forms. Any other services offered are all up-sold on the basis that once they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – walk away from cash already spent? You are at their whim and you are entirely unguarded. And they know it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s site for a very good overview of just a few of the more typical frauds and up-sells to be experienced in the online divorce market.

If you employ an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be dealing with low-level, untrained, disinterested, high turn-over staff, call center staff members and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. No one will carry out any kind of analysis on your case to safeguard you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Customer support will be terrible since it does not have to be anything else. You will never be able to consult with anybody at an online divorce mill as it is very likely that none lie in Norman or even in Oklahoma

If you work with an online divorce mill believing you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your household end up spending for their mistakes for many 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 stay away from in your Norman divorce lawyer hiring decision.

Nevertheless, the possible damage here is not big– nowhere near the damage done routinely by non-lawyer online divorce mills or undoubtedly the damage most likely to be done by you to your own case with DIY divorce.

If you work with a Norman divorce lawyer 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 terribly as if you had actually hired a traditional full representation Norman family law lawyer straight up.

Certainly, you do not want to hire a traditional full representation Norman divorce lawyer you discover on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, however the crucial element here is that you do not want to hire a traditional full representation Norman divorce lawyer to manage your simple uncontested divorce, no matter where you discover that lawyer!!

The threat with hiring a Norman divorce lawyer that you discover ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re employing an uninspired Norman divorce lawyer– a drone who simply stands in line with all other Norman divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your business however does nothing to differentiate himself or herself from the Norman lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to convince you that s/he is the exceptional resolution to your case. You do not want to have that lawyer.

You want a Norman divorce lawyer who is creative, strong, unique, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you work with a Norman divorce lawyer to safeguard your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even care for his/her own business interests aggressively and decisively? You’re looking for a divorce lawyer who purposefully sets himself or herself apart from the Norman lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by joining Avvo and not doing anything else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are free to join, which is why every divorce lawyer in Cleveland County will have joined. So you should not disqualify a Norman divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you should not think that such a Norman divorce lawyer is extremely clever or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free for the lawyer to sign up, the lawyer must then start to pay continuously increasing costs on a bid-basis, constantly contending versus other regional Cleveland County divorce lawyers, to be seen on the top page of the platform’s site. If that lawyer does not 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 does not keep bidding up his/her costs, she’ll not get sufficient trade to stay in business.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top extremely few lawyers in each town taking almost all the business– based upon how much marketing costs 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 trade is the amount of cash 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 Norman 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, however his/her expenses of working will continuously rise while his/her costs are relatively set by the flat demand for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Norman divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will constantly need a growing number of lower profit cases simply to stay on top of sales expenses. You do not desire that business-foolishness in somebody you will trust with your legal and economic future.

And yes, that lawyer is going to use the very same brain to care for your case as s/he utilized to screw his/her own business into the ground.

How to Find the Best Norman Divorce Lawyer – Norman Divorce Lawyer | Norman Family Law Attorney

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

So what do you in fact search for in a Norman divorce lawyer?

Before I inform you, I want to set the stage by providing you 2 exceptional 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 make the most of them in your Norman 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 Norman 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 Norman divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Norman divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this denotes that you just buy the legal services your case actually 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 examine your docs before they are filed, recognize problem concerns in your case and suggest the best alternatives based upon legal recommendations and regional knowledge. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services and you can tell they do not know or do not desire you to know, simply hang up. They do not yet get it. Carry on. Do not inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that allows you to log into a client portal and enterall of the information in your case.  This not only conserves time and money, 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 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 Norman 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 Norman lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Norman. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Norman. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Norman has a 1-800-DIVORCE.

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