How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Santa Ana California?  - Find the Best Divorce Attorney in Santa Ana

It’s a trick question. You do not need to identify the very best divorce attorney in Santa Ana, California There are several divorce lawyers in Santa Ana that would certainly do an equally excellent job for you. It would undoubtedly be out of the question to determine which one is the “absolute best.”

The correct question for you, the Santa Ana divorce buyer, is the way to locate just one of those Santa Ana top-notch divorce attorneys at the correct levels of representation and expense for the facts of your specific situation – while staying clear of all of the common, and often unsafe, risks of the Santa Ana divorce lawyer selection choice.

If you know what those risks are (I will certainly inform you in this post) and if you have the proper mindset, namely that you wish to make your Santa Ana divorce lawyer fit your situation and not permit the lawyer to compel your situation to fit his or her stiff practice profile, after that you boost considerably your possibilities of nailing the Santa Ana divorce lawyer employing choice. Getting you through that selection efficiently is the objective of this article.

First, let’s note the 4 traits to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is feasible, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire free family law forms from California’s judicial council or family court sites. Those free divorce forms will be uncompleted, obviously. You can then try to finish and submit the forms at your local Orange County divorce court on your own without professional assistance. This is feasible – however very improbable, really difficult, confusing, discouraging and very slow.

Do it yourself divorce would be essentially unfeasible, and not smart even to attempt, in any type of  elaborate or contended family law case. It would be very improbable to be a success if you have minor children of the marital relationship or have any type of assets or financial debts to be itemized in case or have custody, visitation or assistance arrangements in your proceedings. It would absolutely be risky in a case including domestic physical violence. Do it yourself would likewise be tough if you work or if you place any sort of worth on your own time. Family law documents and procedures are made by attorneys to puzzle you to ensure that you hire – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I do not invest way too much time on the do it yourself threat. My experience on the front lines of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that folks that start the divorce process with the intent to try to obtain a free divorce are going to  try DIY divorce no matter what. Somehow, most likely financial, there is nothing I have actually had the ability to uncover to persuade them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is consistently fake saving. You WILL probably screw it up, and screwed-up cases are a lot more difficult and costly to fix and conclude. Do not play this game. The system is made by attorneys to puzzle you and compel you to hire a divorce lawyer. There are now economical choices offered– see listed below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is simply one in which the participants will not be disputing any type of issues, including the divorce itself. The participants do not have to be cheerful and they do not have to care for each other. They are either totally or mainly in agreement on all issues and are smart enough to acknowledge that conventional full-representation divorce attorneys (with huge retainers and billable hrs) would be the only winners if they contended relatively inconsequential issues in their divorce.

Conventional complete representation by a regional Santa Ana divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all parts of your divorce case. It is very likely to be a very good professional service, however it is really expensive.

If you have a contested matter, a complex matter, a high-value matter or a case that includes domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, complete representation by a Santa Ana divorce lawyer is NOT to be evaded. It is a necessity.

A disputed matter means that you and your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter includes legal complexities such as tax issues, active business issues, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of many other complicated legal issues. A high-value case indicates that your marital estate is huge. There is no particular dollar limit. Absolutely, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or higher, that is a high-value matter.

If you suspect that you have a contested,complex or high-value matter, you do. Hire an experienced and high priced Santa Ana divorce lawyer for complete conventional 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 conventional complete representation by a Santa Ana divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, complete legal representation by a Santa Ana divorce lawyer ends up being a threat to your financial position. Stay clear of it.

Obviously, if you call or email a conventional Santa Ana divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not need their complete representation service. In fact, they will try to frighten the crap out of you by telling you that you definitely require their service and that your case will get screwed up without it.

That could come to pass– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to prevent potentially 90+% of the possible threat of getting your case screwed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T hire a conventional Santa Ana divorce lawyer on a complete representation basis.

Your case could also potentially get screwed up if you DID hire a complete representation Santa Ana divorce lawyer. That’s also not probable, however it could happen.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY happen if you hire a conventional complete representation Santa Ana divorce lawyer to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case may be managed effectively, however you will overbuy needless services and you will pay too much for them.

There’s no requirement for that to happen anymore. Your mothers and fathers had few other choices on their family law employing options. Your grandparents had no other choices. You have numerous valid choices to make your Santa Ana uncontested divorce lawyer employing selection based upon the nature and truths of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Santa Ana divorce attorneys. Continue reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the greatest danger you are confronted by in your employing selection in terms of damage to your future legal and financial safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a big market. And it is very unsafe to your legal and financial future.

Online divorce mills use slick sites, wicked-cool divorce software, charges lower than MOST attorneys, no legal suggestions, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance coverage, no understanding of Orange County divorce policies, no regional understanding about Orange County guidelines of court, regional Orange County documents, regional practices or the policies of specific regional judges in the Santa Ana area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within an entirely uncontrolled Wild-West market widespread with all type of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill charges average about $300, however what you get for that $300 charge is incredibly little– simply prepared California divorce forms. Any other services supplied are all up-sold on the basis that as soon as they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – leave money already spent? You are at their mercy and you are totally unprotected. And they realize it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s website for a great analysis of just some of the more typical scams and up-sells to be found in the online divorce market.

If you employ an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be dealing with low-level, inexperienced, 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 conduct any type of analysis on your case to protect you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Client assistance will be terrible since it does not have to be anything else. You will never ever be able to meet with anybody at an online divorce mill as it is most likely that none are located in Santa Ana or even in California

If you hire an online divorce mill thinking you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your family wind up spending for their errors for 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 latest pitfall to steer clear of in your Santa Ana divorce lawyer employing choice.

Nevertheless, the possible damage 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 hire a Santa Ana 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, however not as badly as if you had employed a conventional complete representation Santa Ana family law lawyer directly.

Certainly, you do not wish to hire a conventional complete representation Santa Ana divorce lawyer you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, however the essential factor here is that you do not wish to hire a conventional complete representation Santa Ana divorce lawyer to handle your simple uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

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

You would like a Santa Ana divorce lawyer who is creative, strong, one-of-a-kind, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you hire a Santa Ana divorce lawyer to safeguard your own legal and financial interests when s/he does not even look after his or her own law practice interests aggressively and decisively? You’re searching for a divorce lawyer who purposefully sets himself or herself apart from the Santa Ana lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with Avvo and doing nothing else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are free to sign up with, which is why every divorce lawyer in Orange County will have joined. So you must not disqualify a Santa Ana divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you must not consider that such a Santa Ana divorce lawyer is really good or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free for the lawyer to join, the lawyer needs to then start to pay constantly increasing charges on a bid-basis, constantly competing against other regional Orange 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 charges, she’ll not get enough business to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top really few attorneys in each town taking almost all the business– based on just how much marketing charges they can pay– not based on how great they are or on how they have configured their offerings to suit your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your business is the amount 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 Santa Ana pays more to the mass-lawyer finder company and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a highlighted position on the platform’s website and will get more cases, however his or her expenses of getting cases will continuously increase while his or her charges are relatively set by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Santa Ana divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play game will constantly need increasingly more lower revenue cases simply to keep up with business expenses. You do not want that business-foolishness in somebody you will trust with your legal and financial future.

And yes, that lawyer is going to use the same brain to look after your case as s/he used to screw his or her own law practice into the ground.

How to Find the Best Santa Ana Divorce Lawyer – Find the Best Divorce Attorney in Santa Ana

So above are 4 situations to refrain from using: do it yourself divorce, conventional full-service lawyer representation in simple uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone attorneys who are truly bad at law practice business.

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

Before I inform you, I wish to set the stage by providing you two exceptional stats that I did not believe when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you need to take full advantage of them in your Santa Ana 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 Santa Ana 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 Santa Ana divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Santa Ana divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this signifies that you just pay for the legal services your case actually requires. You will typically 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 concerns in your case and recommend the best choices based upon legal suggestions and regional understanding. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can determine they do not know or do not want you to know, simply hang up. They do not yet get it. Move on. Do not inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that enables you to log into a client portal and inputall of the information in your case.  This not only saves 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 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 Santa Ana 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 Santa Ana lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Santa Ana. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Santa Ana. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Santa Ana 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 Santa Ana:

Norwalk, Long Beach, Corona, Downey, Pomona, West Covina, El Monte, Ontario, Torrance, Rancho Cucamonga, Los Angeles, Riverside, Inglewood, Pasadena, Fontana, Rialto, Moreno Valley, Burbank, Murrieta, San Bernardino, Temecula, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Escondido, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Victorville, Lancaster