How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Richardson Texas?  - Divorce & Family Law in Richardson

It’s a trick question. You don’t need to find the most effective divorce lawyer in Richardson, Texas There are plenty of divorce attorneys in Richardson who would do an every bit as very good job for you. It would undoubtedly be impracticable to decide which one is the “very best.”

The real issue for you, the Richardson divorce client, is how to find one of those Richardson best divorce attorneys at the right levels of representation and also cost for the aspects of your individual scenario – while avoiding all of the usual, and also often dangerous, risks of the Richardson divorce lawyer selection decision.

If you understand what those risks are (I will certainly advise you in this article) and also if you have the correct attitude, namely that you intend to make your Richardson divorce lawyer fit your situation and also not allow the lawyer to require your situation to fit his or her rigid practice profile, then you enhance considerably your chances of nailing the Richardson divorce lawyer hiring decision. Getting you through that choice efficiently is the goal of this post.

To start with, let’s specify the 4 aspects to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is conceivable, repeat POSSIBLE, to download totally free family law forms from Texas’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those totally free divorce forms will be blank, of course. You can then try to complete and also record the forms at your neighborhood Dallas County divorce court by yourself without expert aid. This is feasible – nevertheless extremely improbable, extremely challenging, complex, aggravating and also very lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would certainly be practically unfeasible, and also not smart even to try, in any kind of  elaborate or contested family law case. It would certainly be extremely improbable to be a success if you have minor children of the marital relationship or have any kind of assets or debts to be specified in the event or have custody, visitation or assistance arrangements in your proceedings. It would certainly be foolish in a case involving domestic violence. Do it yourself would certainly also be difficult if you have a job or if you position any kind of value on your own time. Family law documents and also processeses are made by attorneys to perplex you so that you work with – a lawyer.

Please excuse me if I don’t spend too much 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 try to get a totally free divorce are most likely to  try DIY divorce no matter what. For one reason or another, probably economic, there is nothing I‘ve been able to find to convince them not to.

DIY in Family Law is consistently false economy. You WILL probably screw it up, and also screwed-up cases are much more troublesome and also costly to deal with and also finalize. Don’t play this game. The system is made by attorneys to perplex you and also require you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are currently cost-efficient alternatives offered– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is just one in which the parties will not be disputing any kind of concerns, including the divorce itself. The parties don’t need to be pleased and also they don’t need to like each other. They are either entirely or mainly in agreement on all concerns and also are smart enough to recognize that traditional full-representation divorce attorneys (with big retainers and also billable hours) would certainly be the only victors if they contested relatively inconsequential concerns in their divorce.

Standard full representation by a neighborhood Richardson divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all aspects of your divorce litigation. It is extremely likely to be a very good service, yet it is high priced.

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

A contested matter denotes that you and also your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter includes legal intricacies such as tax concerns, current business concerns, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of countless additional complicated legal situations. 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 greater, that is a high-value matter.

If you believe that you have a contested,complex or high-value matter, you do. Employ an experienced and also high priced Richardson 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 need conventional full representation by a Richardson divorce lawyer. In fact, under those circumstances, full legal representation by a Richardson divorce lawyer ends up being a risk to your economic position. Steer clear of it.

Of course, if you call or email a conventional Richardson divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not need their full representation service. In fact, they will try to terrify the crap out of you by telling you that you completely are in need of their service which your case will get messed up without it.

That could possibly happen– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to keep away from potentially 90+% of the prospective threat of getting your case messed up if you don’t go DIY and you DON’T employ a conventional Richardson divorce lawyer on a complete representation basis.

Your case might also potentially get messed up if you DID employ a complete representation Richardson divorce lawyer. That’s also not likely, but it could possibly happen.

However, what will DEFINITELY happen if you employ a conventional full representation Richardson divorce lawyer to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case might be handled extremely well, but you will overbuy unnecessary services and you will pay too much for them.

There’s no need for that to happen anymore. Your mothers and fathers 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 Richardson uncontested divorce lawyer hiring choice based upon the nature and truths of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Richardson divorce attorneys. Read on.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is without a doubt the greatest threat you are confronted by in your hiring choice in terms of damage to your future legal and economic security. Non-lawyer online divorce is a big industry. And it is very dangerous to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills provide slick websites, wicked-cool divorce software applications, costs lower than MOST attorneys, no legal advice, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of ethics, no malpractice insurance, no knowledge of Dallas County divorce procedures, no local knowledge about Dallas County guidelines of court, local Dallas County documents, local practices or the policies of specific local judges in the Richardson local area and no professional interest in you or your case. And all within a totally uncontrolled Wild-West industry widespread with all sort of incompetence, price fraud, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill costs average about $300, but what you get for that $300 cost is incredibly little– just prepared Texas 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 spent? You are at their mercy and you are entirely unguarded. And they recognize it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s website for a very good synopsis of merely some of the more typical scams and up-sells to be discovered in the online divorce industry.

If you employ an online divorce mill, you’ll always be dealing 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. No one will perform any kind of analysis on your case to secure you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Customer assistance will be dreadful because it does not need to be anything else. You will never ever be able to meet with anybody at an online divorce mill as it is very likely that none of them are located in Richardson and even in Texas

If you work with an online divorce mill believing you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your family wind up spending for their mistakes for many 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 latest mistake to steer clear of in your Richardson divorce lawyer hiring decision.

However, the prospective damage here is not massive– nowhere near the damage done regularly 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 Richardson divorce lawyer 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 hired a conventional full representation Richardson family law lawyer directly.

Certainly, you don’t want to employ a conventional full representation Richardson divorce lawyer you discover on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, but the essential aspect here is that you don’t want to employ a conventional full representation Richardson divorce lawyer to handle your simple uncontested divorce, no matter where you discover that lawyer!!

The threat with hiring a Richardson divorce lawyer that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re hiring a humdrum Richardson divorce lawyer– a drone who just stands in line with all other Richardson divorce attorneys and HOPES that s/he will get your business but does nothing to differentiate himself or herself from the Richardson lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to influence you that s/he is the unique solution to your case. You don’t wish to have that lawyer.

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

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

However, you must not presume that such a Richardson divorce lawyer is extremely smart or business-savvy either. The issue is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are completely free for the lawyer to register with, the lawyer needs to then start to pay continuously increasing costs on a bid-basis, always contending versus other local Dallas County divorce attorneys, 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 costs, she’ll not get sufficient trade to stay in business.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top extremely few attorneys in each town taking almost all clients– based upon just how much advertising 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 quantity of money 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 Richardson pays more to the mass-lawyer finder company and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a featured position on the platform’s website and will get more cases, but his or her costs of getting business will constantly increase while his or her costs are relatively fixed by the flat demand for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Richardson divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will always need a growing number of lower revenue cases just to keep up with business costs. You don’t want that business-foolishness in somebody 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 or her own law practice into the ground.

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

So above are 4 things to stay away from: DIY divorce, old-fashioned full-service lawyer representation in simple uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone attorneys who are actually bad at law practice business.

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

Before I advise you, I want to set the stage by offering you two exceptional statistics that I did not presume true when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you really need to take full advantage of them in your Richardson divorce lawyer selection 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 Richardson 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 Richardson divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Richardson divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this suggests that you only purchase the legal services your case needs. 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 evaluate your docs before they are filed, determine problem issues in your case and recommend the best alternatives based upon legal advice and local knowledge. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can tell they don’t understand or don’t want you to understand, just hang up. They don’t yet get it. Carry on. Don’t inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that enables you to log into a client portal and inputall of the personal data in your case.  This not only saves money and time, but it literally 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 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 Richardson 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 Richardson lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Richardson. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Richardson. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Richardson 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 Richardson:

Dallas, Irving, Mesquite, Frisco, Lewisville, McKinney, Grand Prairie, Arlington, Denton, Fort Worth, Tyler, Waco, Wichita Falls, Killeen, College Station, Norman, Shreveport, Round Rock, Abilene, Oklahoma City, Austin, Broken Arrow, Tulsa, Houston, Pearland, Beaumont, San Antonio, Little Rock, Lubbock, Midland