How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Santa Rosa California?  - Santa Rosa DIvorce Lawyer | California Family Law Attorney

It’s a trick question. You do not need to get the absolute best divorce lawyer or attorney in Santa Rosa, California There are lots of divorce lawyers in Santa Rosa who would likely do a just as great effort for you. It would definitely be out of the question to figure which one is the “best.”

The correct question for you, the Santa Rosa divorce consumer, is exactly how to find just one of those Santa Rosa top divorce lawyers at the precise levels of representation and expense for the facts of your certain case – while keeping away from every one of the usual, and sometimes harmful, risks of the Santa Rosa divorce lawyer hiring choice.

If you know what those risks are (I will certainly tell you in this blog post) and if you have the right perspective, specifically that you want to make your Santa Rosa divorce lawyer fit your case and not allow the attorney to compel your case to fit his or her inflexible practice profile, after that you raise substantially your opportunities of nailing the Santa Rosa divorce lawyer hiring choice. Getting you through that decision effectively is the goal of this post.

Initially, let’s note the 4 points to stay clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is entirely possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire free family law documents from California’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those free divorce documents will be uncompleted, of course. You can then try to complete and record the documents at your regional Sonoma County divorce court on your own without professional help. This is possible – however very unlikely, really difficult, confusing, aggravating and exceptionally lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would be practically unachievable, and not wise even to try, in any kind of  complex or contended family law process. It would be very unlikely to be a success if you have minor children of the marriage or have any kind of assets or financial obligations to be itemized in the case or have custody, visitation or assistance settlements in your case. It would absolutely be reckless in a case including domestic physical violence. Do it yourself would likewise be tough if you work or if you place any kind of worth on your own time. Family law documents and processeses are created by lawyers to perplex you to ensure that you hire – a lawyer.

Please excuse me if I do not spend excessive time on the do it yourself threat. My experience on the front lines of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that individuals who begin the divorce process with the intent to try to get a free divorce are most likely to  try DIY divorce regardless of what. For one reason or another, most likely financial, there is absolutely nothing I have actually been able to uncover to persuade them not to.

DIY in Family Law is always fake saving. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are a lot more perplexing and expensive to deal with and conclude. Do not play this game. The system is created by lawyers to perplex you and compel you to hire a divorce lawyer. There are currently cost-efficient alternatives offered– see below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is simply one in which the litigants will not be challenging any kind of issues, including the divorce itself. The litigants do not need to be pleased and they do not need to like each other. They are either entirely or mostly in agreement on all issues and are wise enough to acknowledge that traditional full-representation divorce lawyers (with big retainers and billable hrs) would be the only winners if they contended relatively unimportant issues in their divorce.

Traditional complete representation by a local Santa Rosa divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all facets of your divorce case. It is very likely to be a very good service, yet it is really expensive.

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

A disputed matter means that you and your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter includes legal intricacies such as tax issues, active business issues, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of many additional complex legal issues. A high-value case indicates that your marital estate is very large. There is no particular 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,complicated or high-value matter, you do. Employ an expert and expensive Santa Rosa divorce lawyer for complete conventional representation. Look 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 Rosa divorce lawyer. In fact, under those circumstances, complete legal representation by a Santa Rosa divorce lawyer becomes a risk to your financial position. Avoid it.

Naturally, if you call or email a conventional Santa Rosa divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not need their complete representation service. In fact, they will try to terrify the crap out of you by sharing with you that you without a doubt need to have their service and that your case will get messed up without it.

That could well come to pass– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to avoid perhaps 90+% of the prospective threat of getting your case messed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T hire a conventional Santa Rosa divorce attorney on a complete representation basis.

Your case might likewise perhaps get messed up if you DID hire a complete representation Santa Rosa divorce attorney. That’s likewise not likely, however it could happen.

However, what will DEFINITELY happen if you hire a conventional complete representation Santa Rosa divorce attorney to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case might be dealt with very well, however you will overbuy excessive services and you will overpay for them.

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

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the greatest risk you are confronted by in your hiring decision in regards to damage to your future legal and financial security. Non-lawyer online divorce is a substantial industry. And it is exceptionally harmful to your legal and financial future.

Online divorce mills provide slick sites, wicked-cool divorce computer software, fees lower than MOST lawyers, no legal advice, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance coverage, no knowledge of Sonoma County divorce policies, no local knowledge about Sonoma County guidelines of court, local Sonoma County documents, local practices or the policies of individual local judges in the Santa Rosa region and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within a totally uncontrolled Wild-West industry rampant with all sort of incompetence, price fraud, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill fees average about $300, however what you get for that $300 fee is extremely little– just prepared California divorce documents. 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 – walk away from money already spent? You are at their whim and you are entirely unprotected. And they realize it!

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

If you hire an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be dealing with low-level, untrained, disinterested, high turn-over personnel, call center employees 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 safeguard you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Customer assistance will be dreadful because it doesn’t need to be anything else. You will never be able to consult with anybody at an online divorce mill as it is highly likely that none lie in Santa Rosa or even in California

If you hire an online divorce mill believing you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your household 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 directory sites like Avvo, FindLaw, LegalZoom, Justia, Google Screened, Google Business Profile (formerly GMB) and now even Yelp. This is the latest pitfall to stay clear of in your Santa Rosa divorce lawyer hiring choice.

However, the prospective harm here is not significant– nowhere near the damage done consistently by non-lawyer online divorce mills or undoubtedly the damage likely to be done by you to your own case with DIY divorce.

If you hire a Santa Rosa 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 badly as if you had employed a conventional complete representation Santa Rosa family law attorney straight up.

Undoubtedly, you do not want to hire a conventional complete representation Santa Rosa divorce attorney you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would intensify your over-payment, however the crucial element here is that you do not want to hire a conventional complete representation Santa Rosa divorce attorney to handle your basic uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The threat with hiring a Santa Rosa divorce attorney that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re working with a humdrum Santa Rosa divorce attorney– a drone who just stands in line with all other Santa Rosa divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your trade however does nothing to distinguish himself or herself from the Santa Rosa lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to influence you that s/he is the unequalled solution to your case. You do not want that lawyer.

You could do with a Santa Rosa divorce lawyer who is creative, strong, unique, classy and business-savvy. In fact, why would you hire a Santa Rosa divorce lawyer to look after 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 Rosa lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by joining Avvo and doing nothing else.

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

However, you must not assume that such a Santa Rosa divorce lawyer is really intelligent or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are completely free for the lawyer to enroll in, the lawyer must then begin to pay constantly increasing fees on a bid-basis, constantly contending against other local Sonoma County divorce lawyers, to be seen on the top page of the platform’s website. If that lawyer doesn’t pay more, s/he’ll be on page 3 or 5 of the mass-lawyer website in even a medium-sized town. If that lawyer doesn’t keep bidding up his or her fees, she’ll not get adequate trade to stay in business.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top really few lawyers in each town taking almost all cases– based upon how much marketing fees they can pay– not based upon how great they are or on how they have actually configured their offerings to fit your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your case is the quantity of money s/he is prepared to pay to get it, not the quality and distinctiveness of his or her service offerings.

If that me-too divorce lawyer in Santa Rosa pays more to the mass-lawyer finder platform and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a highlighted position on the platform’s website and will get more sales, however his or her costs of acquiring cases will constantly increase while his or her fees are relatively set by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

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

And yes, that lawyer is going to use the very 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 Rosa Divorce Lawyer – Santa Rosa DIvorce Lawyer | California Family Law Attorney

So above are 4 problems to keep clear of: do it yourself divorce, old-fashioned full-service lawyer representation in basic uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and uninspiring me-too drone lawyers who are really bad at the business of law practice.

So what do you in fact search for in a Santa Rosa divorce attorney?

Before I tell you, I want to set the stage by providing you two amazing data that I did not accept when I first saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you really need to maximize them in your Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa 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 Rosa divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Santa Rosa divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this denotes that you only purchase the legal services your case 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 evaluate your docs before they are filed, identify problem issues in your case and suggest the best alternatives based upon legal advice and local knowledge. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can see that they do not know or do not want you to know, just hang up. They do not yet get it. Move on. Do not inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that allows you to log into a client portal and inputall of the information in your case.  This not only conserves money and time, but it literally empowers you in your own case. You are the source of all datain your case. Likewise, there’s no 50-page paper 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 Rosa 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 Rosa lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Santa Rosa. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Santa Rosa. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Santa Rosa has a 1-800-DIVORCE.

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