How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in San Diego California?  - Best San Diego, California Divorce Attorney San Diego County

It’s a trick question. You do not want to locate the most effective divorce lawyer or attorney in San Diego, California There are numerous divorce attorneys in San Diego who would certainly do an equally very good effort for you. It would definitely be inconceivable to ascertain which one is the “best.”

The real concern for you, the San Diego divorce buyer, is how to find just one of those San Diego best divorce attorneys at the correct standards of assistance and price for the aspects of your specific case – while staying away from every one of the common, and in some cases dangerous, challenges of the San Diego divorce lawyer selection choice.

If you understand what those challenges are (I will certainly inform you in this short article) and if you have the proper perspective, particularly that you want to make your San Diego divorce lawyer fit your situation and not enable the attorney to require your situation to fit his/her rigid practice profile, after that you boost greatly your possibilities of nailing the San Diego divorce lawyer hiring choice. Getting you through that selection successfully is the objective of this post.

To begin with, let’s specify the 4 factors to avoid:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download free family law forms from California’s judicial council or family court sites. Those free divorce forms are going to be uncompleted, obviously. You can then try to complete and submit the forms at your local San Diego County divorce court on your own without expert help. This is possible – nevertheless extremely improbable, extremely challenging, complex, aggravating and very slow.

Do it yourself divorce would certainly be effectively unattainable, and not wise even to try, in any  complicated or contended family law proceedings. It would certainly be extremely improbable to be effective if you have minor children of the marriage or have any assets or financial obligations to be detailed in case or have custody, visitation or assistance agreements in your proceedings. It would absolutely be foolish in a matter involving domestic violence. Do it yourself would certainly also be tough if you have a job or if you put any type of worth on your own time. Family law forms and procedures are designed by attorneys to perplex you to ensure that you employ – a lawyer.

Please excuse me if I do not invest too much time on the do it yourself danger. My experience on the front lines of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that people who start the divorce procedure with the intent to try to obtain a totally free divorce are going to  try DIY divorce whatever. For some reason, most likely economic, there is absolutely nothing I have actually been able to find to encourage them not to.

DIY in Family Law is consistently fake economy. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are much more challenging and expensive to fix and finalize. Don’t play this game. The system is designed by attorneys to perplex you and require you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are currently affordable choices offered– see below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is just one in which the litigants will not be disputing any issues, including the divorce itself. The litigants do not need to be pleased and they do not need to care for each other. They are either entirely or generally in agreement on all issues and are wise enough to realize that conventional full-representation divorce attorneys (with big retainers and billable hrs) would certainly be the only victors if they contended fairly unimportant issues in their divorce.

Traditional complete representation by a local San Diego divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all aspects of your divorce case. It is extremely likely to be a good service, however it is high priced.

If you have a contested case, a complex case, a high-value case or a matter that involves domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, complete representation by a San Diego divorce lawyer is NOT to be avoided. It is a necessity.

A disputed case indicates that you and your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the case. A complex case consists of legal complexities such as tax issues, active business issues, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of countless additional intricate legal issues. A high-value case means that your marital estate is huge. There is no particular dollar limit. Certainly, 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 contested,complicated or high-value case, you do. Hire an expert and expensive San Diego 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 contested, complex, high-value or domestic violence case, you do NOT require traditional complete representation by a San Diego divorce lawyer. In fact, under those circumstances, complete legal representation by a San Diego divorce lawyer ends up being a threat to your economic position. Avoid it.

Naturally, if you call or email a traditional San Diego divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not require their complete representation service. In fact, they will try to scare the crap out of you by telling you that you undeniably need to have their service which your case will get messed up without it.

That might occur– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to steer clear of perhaps 90+% of the possible danger of getting your case messed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T employ a traditional San Diego divorce attorney on a complete representation basis.

Your case might also perhaps get messed up if you DID employ a complete representation San Diego divorce attorney. That’s also not probable, however it could happen.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY happen if you employ a traditional complete representation San Diego divorce attorney to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case might be managed effectively, however you will overbuy needless services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no requirement for that to happen nowadays. Your mothers and fathers had few other choices on their family law hiring decisions. Your grandparents had no other choices. You have many legitimate choices to make your San Diego uncontested divorce lawyer hiring selection based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of San Diego divorce attorneys. Keep reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the most significant threat you encounter in your hiring selection in regards to damage to your future legal and economic safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a big market. And it is very dangerous to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills offer slick sites, wicked-cool divorce computer software, costs lower than MOST attorneys, no legal suggestions, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance, no understanding of San Diego County divorce policies, no local understanding about San Diego County guidelines of court, local San Diego County forms, local practices or the policies of individual local judges in the San Diego area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within a completely uncontrolled Wild-West market rampant with all kinds of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill costs average about $300, however what you get for that $300 cost is incredibly little– just prepared California divorce forms. Any other services delivered 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 know it!

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

If you employ an online divorce mill, you’ll always be contending with low-level, untrained, disinterested, high turn-over personnel, call center staff members and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. Nobody will perform any kind of analysis on your case to protect you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Client assistance will be horrible because it does not need to be anything else. You will never ever be able to meet anybody at an online divorce mill as it is very likely that none are located in San Diego or even in California

If you employ an online divorce mill believing you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your family wind up spending for their mistakes 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 most recent pitfall to avoid in your San Diego divorce lawyer hiring choice.

Nevertheless, the possible harm 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 employ a San Diego divorce attorney you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to overpay to some extent, depending upon how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, however not as severely as if you had employed a traditional complete representation San Diego family law attorney directly.

Undoubtedly, you do not wish to employ a traditional complete representation San Diego divorce attorney you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would intensify your over-payment, however the crucial aspect here is that you do not wish to employ a traditional complete representation San Diego divorce attorney to handle your basic uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The danger with hiring a San Diego divorce attorney that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re employing a mediocre San Diego divorce attorney– a drone who just stands in line with all other San Diego divorce attorneys and HOPES that s/he will get your business however does nothing to distinguish himself or herself from the San Diego lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to influence you that s/he is the standout resolution to your case. You do not wish to have that lawyer.

You want a San Diego divorce lawyer who is imaginative, vibrant, one-of-a-kind, stylish and business-savvy. In fact, why would you employ a San Diego divorce lawyer to care for your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even care for his/her own business interests strongly and decisively? You’re trying to find a divorce lawyer who intentionally sets himself or herself apart from the San Diego lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with 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 San Diego County will have joined. So you must not disqualify a San Diego divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you must not assume that such a San Diego divorce lawyer is extremely effective or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free of cost for the lawyer to join, the lawyer needs to then start to pay continually increasing costs on a bid-basis, always battling versus other local San Diego County divorce attorneys, 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 enough trade to stay in business.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top extremely few attorneys in each town taking almost all the business– based on how much advertising costs they can pay– not based on how excellent they are or on how they have actually 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 distinctiveness of his/her service offerings.

If that me-too divorce lawyer in San Diego pays more to the mass-lawyer finder platform and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a highlighted position on the platform’s site and will get more sales, however his/her costs of working will constantly increase while his/her costs are fairly fixed by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The San Diego divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will always require increasingly more lower profit cases just to keep up with business costs. You do not want that business-foolishness in somebody you will trust with your legal and economic future.

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

How to Find the Best San Diego Divorce Lawyer – Best San Diego, California Divorce Attorney San Diego County

So above are 4 situations to avoid: do it yourself divorce, old-fashioned full-service lawyer representation in basic uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone attorneys who are actually bad at the business of law practice.

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

Before I inform you, I wish to set the stage by offering you two exceptional data that I did not believe when I first saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you really need to make the most of them in your San Diego divorce lawyer employing 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 San Diego 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 San Diego divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local San Diego divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this indicates that you just pay for the legal services your case actually requires. You will typically do your own filing of docs at court and arrange for the service of filed docs on your spouse/partner. The divorce lawyer will review your docs before they are submitted to court, identify problem issues in your case and suggest the very best choices based upon legal suggestions and local understanding. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services and you can see that they do not understand or do not want you to understand, just hang up. They do not yet get it. Move on. Don’t 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 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 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 San Diego 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 San Diego lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in San Diego. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in San Diego. Check here or complete the web form below to see if San Diego 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 San Diego:

El Cajon, Escondido, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Temecula, Murrieta, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Corona, Orange, Moreno Valley, Garden Grove, Riverside, Anaheim, Fullerton, Long Beach, Fontana, San Bernardino, Rialto, Ontario, Norwalk, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, Downey, Torrance, West Covina, El Monte, Inglewood