How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Philadelphia Pennsylvania?  - Philadelphia Divorce Lawyer | Philadelphia Family Law Attorney

It’s a trick question. You don’t want to locate the best divorce attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania There are lots of divorce attorneys in Philadelphia who would likely do an every bit as great effort for you. It would undoubtedly be out of the question to figure which one is the “best.”

The legitimate question for you, the Philadelphia divorce buyer, is the way to choose one of those Philadelphia top divorce lawyers at the ideal standards of representation as well as expense for the aspects of your unique circumstances – while avoiding all of the usual, as well as in some cases unsafe, risks of the Philadelphia divorce lawyer hiring choice.

If you recognize what those risks are (I will certainly inform you in this short article) as well as if you have the correct perspective, particularly that you intend to make your Philadelphia divorce lawyer fit your case as well as not permit the attorney to force your case to fit his or her rigid practice profile, after that you boost greatly your opportunities of nailing the Philadelphia divorce lawyer hiring choice. Getting you through that decision successfully is the intention of this article.

Initially, let’s list the 4 aspects to stay clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is entirely possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download totally free family law documents from Pennsylvania’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those totally free divorce documents will be uncompleted, obviously. You can at that point attempt to complete as well as file the documents at your local Philadelphia County divorce court on your own without professional assistance. This is feasible – but very unlikely, extremely challenging, confusing, discouraging as well as extremely time-consuming.

DIY divorce would certainly be essentially out of the question, as well as not wise even to attempt, in any type of  complicated or contended family law matter. It would certainly be very unlikely to be a success if you have minor children of the marriage or have any type of property or debts to be specified in case or have custody, visitation or assistance agreements in your matter. It would definitely be ill-advised in a case including domestic physical violence. DIY would certainly additionally be hard if you work or if you place any type of worth on your own time. Family law forms as well as procedures are created by lawyers to confuse you so that you work with – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I don’t spend way too much time on the do it yourself danger. My experience on the cutting edge of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that folks who begin the divorce procedure with the intent to attempt to obtain a totally free divorce are most likely to  attempt DIY divorce whatever. For one reason or another, probably financial, there is absolutely nothing I have actually had the ability to uncover to persuade them not to.

DIY in Family Law is typically false affordability. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, as well as screwed-up matters are much more difficult as well as costly to correct as well as finalize. Do not play this game. The system is created by lawyers to confuse you as well as force you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are now economical options offered– see below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is just one in which the parties will not be contesting any type of issues, including the divorce itself. The parties don’t need to be happy as well as they don’t need to like each other. They are either totally or mostly in agreement on all issues as well as are wise enough to acknowledge that traditional full-representation divorce lawyers (with big retainers as well as billable hours) would certainly be the only victors if they contended relatively insignificant issues in their divorce.

Conventional complete representation by a local Philadelphia 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 professional service, but 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, complete representation by a Philadelphia divorce lawyer is NOT to be avoided. It is a prerequisite.

A disputed case indicates that you as well as your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the case. A complicated case consists of legal complexities such as tax issues, active business issues, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of many additional complicated legal situations. 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 greater, that is a high-value case.

If you suspect that you have a disputed,complex or high-value case, you do. Employ an expert as well as expensive Philadelphia divorce lawyer for complete traditional representation. Seek 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 require traditional complete representation by a Philadelphia divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, complete legal representation by a Philadelphia divorce lawyer becomes a risk to your financial position. Stay clear of it.

Of course, if you call or email a traditional Philadelphia divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not require their complete representation service. In fact, they will attempt to frighten the crap out of you by sharing with you that you without a doubt need 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 tell you next how to prevent potentially 90+% of the prospective danger of getting your case screwed up if you don’t go DIY and you DON’T employ a traditional Philadelphia divorce attorney on a full representation basis.

Your case could likewise potentially get screwed up if you DID employ a full representation Philadelphia divorce attorney. That’s likewise not probable, but it could possibly happen.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY happen if you employ a traditional complete representation Philadelphia divorce attorney to manage your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case may be dealt with very well, but you will overbuy unnecessary services and you will pay too much for them.

There’s no requirement for that to happen any longer. Your mothers and fathers had few other options on their family law hiring choices. Your grandparents had no other options. You have many valid options to make your Philadelphia uncontested divorce lawyer hiring decision based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Philadelphia divorce lawyers. Keep reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is without a doubt the biggest risk you face in your hiring decision in terms of damage to your future legal and financial security. Non-lawyer online divorce is a huge market. And it is extremely unsafe to your legal and financial future.

Online divorce mills use slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software application, charges lower than MOST lawyers, no legal guidance, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance coverage, no understanding of Philadelphia County divorce procedures, no regional understanding about Philadelphia County rules of court, regional Philadelphia County forms, regional practices or the policies of specific regional judges in the Philadelphia local area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within a completely unregulated Wild-West market widespread with all sort of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill charges average about $300, but what you get for that $300 fee is incredibly little– simply prepared Pennsylvania divorce documents. Any other services supplied are all up-sold on the basis that when they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – ignore cash already invested? You are at their mercy and you are totally unguarded. And they know it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s website for a good analysis of merely some of the more typical frauds and up-sells to be experienced in the online divorce market.

If you hire an online divorce mill, you’ll always be contending 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. No one will conduct any kind of analysis on your case to safeguard you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Customer assistance will be horrible due to the fact that it does not need to be anything else. You will never be able to meet with anyone at an online divorce mill as it is very likely that none lie in Philadelphia or even in Pennsylvania

If you work with an online divorce mill thinking you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your family end up spending for their errors for several years, that is NOT an inexpensive 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 stay clear of in your Philadelphia divorce lawyer hiring choice.

Nevertheless, the prospective harm here is not significant– nowhere near the damage done routinely 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 work with a Philadelphia 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 hired a traditional complete representation Philadelphia family law attorney straight up.

Undoubtedly, you don’t want to employ a traditional complete representation Philadelphia divorce attorney you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, but the crucial element here is that you don’t want to employ a traditional complete representation Philadelphia divorce attorney to manage your simple uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The danger with hiring a Philadelphia divorce attorney that you discover ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re hiring an uninspired Philadelphia divorce attorney– a drone who simply stands in line with all other Philadelphia divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your trade but does nothing to set apart himself or herself from the Philadelphia lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to persuade you that s/he is the standout resolution to your case. You don’t want that lawyer.

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

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are free of charge to sign up with, which is why every divorce lawyer in Philadelphia County will have registered. So you must not disqualify a Philadelphia divorce lawyer just because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you must not conclude that such a Philadelphia divorce lawyer is extremely smart or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free of charge for the lawyer to join, the lawyer must then begin to pay continually increasing charges on a bid-basis, always contending against other regional Philadelphia 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 or her charges, she’ll not get enough business 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 on just how much advertising charges they can pay– not based on how good they are or on how they have actually configured their offerings to match your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your trade is the quantity of cash s/he is prepared to pay to get it, not the quality and skill of his or her service offerings.

If that me-too divorce lawyer in Philadelphia pays more to the mass-lawyer finder platform and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a featured position on the platform’s website and will get more business, but his or her expenses of working will continuously increase while his or her charges are relatively set by the flat demand for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Philadelphia divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play game will always require increasingly more lower profit cases simply to keep up with sales expenses. You don’t want that business-foolishness in somebody you will rely on with your legal and financial 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 or her own business into the ground.

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

So above are 4 things to avoid: do it yourself divorce, old-fashioned full-service lawyer representation in simple uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and boring me-too drone lawyers who are truly bad at law practice business.

So what do you actually search for in a Philadelphia divorce attorney?

Before I inform you, I want to set the stage by providing you two remarkable statistics that I did not accept 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 Philadelphia divorce lawyer selection 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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Philadelphia divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this signifies that you only buy the legal services your case needs. You will generally do your own filing of docs at court and arrange for the service of filed docs on your spouse/partner. The divorce lawyer will evaluate your docs before they are submitted to court, determine problem concerns in your case and suggest the very best options based upon legal guidance and regional understanding. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services and you can see that they don’t understand or don’t want you to understand, simply hang up. They don’t yet get it. Carry on. Do not educate them.
3. Uses online divorce software that enables you to log into a client portal and inputall of the data 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. Also, there’s no 50-page paper copyone-size-fits-all questionnaire for you to get through 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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Philadelphia. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Philadelphia. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia:

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