How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Seattle Washington?  - Seattle Divorce Lawyer | Seattle Family Law Attorney

It’s a trick question. You don’t want to find the best divorce lawyer in Seattle, Washington There are several divorce attorneys in Seattle that would likely do a just as excellent effort for you. It would be out of the question to ascertain which one is the “very best.”

The actual issue for you, the Seattle divorce consumer, is precisely how to identify one of those Seattle top divorce attorneys at the right levels of assistance and also expense for the facts of your individual scenario – while staying away from every one of the usual, and also sometimes harmful, risks of the Seattle divorce lawyer hiring decision.

If you understand what those risks are (I will tell you in this blog post) and also if you have the proper mindset, specifically that you want to make your Seattle divorce lawyer fit your situation and also not enable the attorney to force your situation to fit his or her stiff practice profile, after that you enhance substantially your opportunities of nailing the Seattle divorce lawyer employing decision. Getting you through that decision effectively is the goal of this article.

First, let’s list the 4 aspects to avoid:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download free family law documents from Washington’s judicial council or family court sites. Those free divorce documents will be blank, obviously. You can then attempt to complete and also file the documents at your regional King County divorce court on your own without specialist help. This is possible – nevertheless very unlikely, really challenging, complicated, discouraging and also exceptionally lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would certainly be practically out of the question, and also not smart even to try, in any type of  complicated or contended family law case. It would certainly be very unlikely to be effective if you have minor children of the marital relationship or have any type of assets or financial obligations to be specified in the event or have custody, visitation or support arrangements in your case. It would certainly be foolish in a case including domestic violence. Do it yourself would certainly likewise be difficult if you have a job or if you position any kind of value on your own time. Family law documents and also procedures are developed by attorneys to perplex you to make sure that you work with – an attorney.

Please excuse me if I don’t spend excessive time on the DIY risk. My experience on the front lines of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that individuals that start the divorce process with the intent to attempt to obtain a totally free divorce are most likely to  attempt Do-It-Yourself divorce regardless of what. For some reason, probably economic, there is absolutely nothing I have actually had the ability to discover to persuade them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is typically fake saving. You WILL probably screw it up, and also screwed-up matters are much more problematic and also really expensive to correct and also conclude. Don’t play this game. The system is developed by attorneys to perplex you and also force you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are currently cost-efficient alternatives readily available– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is merely one in which the participants will not be contesting any type of problems, including the divorce itself. The participants don’t have to be cheerful and also they don’t have to like each other. They are either totally or generally in agreement on all problems and also are smart enough to realize that standard full-representation divorce attorneys (with massive retainers and also billable hrs) would certainly be the only winners if they contended relatively inconsequential problems in their divorce.

Standard full representation by a local Seattle divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all facets of your divorce litigation. It is very likely to be an excellent professional service, but it is very expensive.

If you have a disputed matter, a complicated matter, a high-value matter or a case that includes domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, full representation by a Seattle divorce lawyer is NOT to be refrained from. It is a requirement.

A disputed matter denotes that you and also your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter includes legal complexities such as tax problems, active business problems, a special needs child of the marital relationship or any one of many additional complex legal situations. A high-value case denotes that your marital estate is huge. There is no specific dollar limit. Definitely, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or higher, that is a high-value matter.

If you believe that you have a disputed,complicated or high-value matter, you do. Work with an expert and also expensive Seattle divorce lawyer for full conventional representation. Seek a certified Family Law specialist. You will not be sorry you did.

If you do NOT have a disputed, complex, high-value or domestic violence case, you do NOT require conventional full representation by a Seattle divorce lawyer. In fact, under those circumstances, full legal representation by a Seattle divorce lawyer ends up being a threat to your economic position. Steer clear of it.

Obviously, if you call or email a traditional Seattle divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not require their full representation service. In fact, they will attempt to scare 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 screwed up without it.

That could happen– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll advise you next how to avoid perhaps 90+% of the prospective risk of getting your case screwed up if you don’t go DIY and you DON’T employ a traditional Seattle divorce attorney on a full representation basis.

Your case could likewise perhaps get screwed up if you DID employ a full representation Seattle divorce attorney. That’s likewise not likely, however it could possibly happen.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY happen if you employ a traditional full representation Seattle divorce attorney to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case may be handled extremely well, however you will overbuy unnecessary services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no requirement for that to happen anymore. Your mothers and fathers had few other alternatives on their family law employing options. Your grandparents had no other alternatives. You have numerous legitimate alternatives to make your Seattle uncontested divorce lawyer employing decision based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Seattle divorce attorneys. Keep reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the biggest threat you deal with in your employing decision in regards to damage to your future legal and economic safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a substantial industry. And it is exceptionally harmful to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills offer slick sites, wicked-cool divorce software application, fees lower than MOST attorneys, no legal suggestions, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of ethics, no malpractice insurance coverage, no understanding of King County divorce policies, no local understanding about King County guidelines of court, local King County documents, local practices or the policies of individual local judges in the Seattle area and no professional interest in you or your case. And all within a completely unregulated Wild-West industry widespread with all kinds of incompetence, price scams, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill fees average about $300, however what you get for that $300 fee is remarkably little– simply prepared Washington divorce documents. Any other services delivered are all up-sold on the basis that when they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – leave money already spent? You are at their whim and you are totally unprotected. And they realize it!

See the Online Divorce Association of America’s site for a very good overview of just some of the more typical frauds and up-sells to be found in the online divorce industry.

If you hire an online divorce mill, you’ll always be contending 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. Nobody will carry out any kind of analysis on your case to secure you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Client support will be dreadful since it doesn’t have to be anything else. You will never be able to meet with anybody at an online divorce mill as it is very likely that none lie in Seattle and even in Washington

If you work with an online divorce mill thinking you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your family wind up paying for their mistakes for several years, that is NOT a low-cost 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 avoid in your Seattle divorce lawyer employing decision.

Nevertheless, the prospective damage here is not huge– 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 Seattle divorce attorney you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to overpay 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 traditional full representation Seattle family law attorney straight up.

Certainly, you don’t wish to employ a traditional full representation Seattle divorce attorney you discover on a mass-lawyer platform. That would compound your over-payment, however the important factor here is that you don’t wish to employ a traditional full representation Seattle divorce attorney to handle your basic uncontested divorce, no matter where you discover that lawyer!!

The risk with employing a Seattle divorce attorney that you find ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re hiring a run-of-the-mill Seattle divorce attorney– a drone who simply stands in line with all other Seattle divorce attorneys and HOPES that s/he will get your business however does nothing to distinguish himself or herself from the Seattle lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to influence you that s/he is the best solution to your case. You don’t wish to have that lawyer.

You want to get a Seattle divorce lawyer who is imaginative, vibrant, unique, stylish and business-savvy. In fact, why would you work with a Seattle divorce lawyer to safeguard your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even care for his or her own law practice interests strongly and decisively? You’re trying to find a divorce lawyer who intentionally sets himself or herself apart from the Seattle 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 King County will have signed up. So you ought to not disqualify a Seattle divorce lawyer only because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you ought to not presume that such a Seattle divorce lawyer is really wise or business-savvy either. The issue is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free of cost for the lawyer to enroll in, the lawyer will need to then start to pay constantly increasing fees on a bid-basis, always battling against other local King County divorce attorneys, to be seen on the leading page of the platform’s site. If that lawyer doesn’t 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 doesn’t keep bidding up his or her fees, she’ll not get adequate trade to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the leading really few attorneys in each town taking almost all the business– based on just how much advertising fees they can pay– not based on how great 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 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 Seattle pays more to the mass-lawyer finder company and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a highlighted position on the platform’s site and will get more cases, however his or her expenses of getting business will continuously increase while his or her fees are relatively fixed by the flat demand for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Seattle divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play game will always require more and more lower profit cases simply to stay on top of sales expenses. You don’t want that business-foolishness in someone you will trust with your legal and economic future.

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

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

So above are 4 things to stay clear of: DIY divorce, old-fashioned full-service lawyer representation in basic uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and uninspiring me-too drone attorneys who are actually bad at law practice business.

So what do you in fact look for in a Seattle divorce attorney?

Before I tell you, I wish to set the stage by offering you 2 remarkable stats that I did not accept 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 Seattle divorce lawyer hiring 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 Seattle 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 Seattle divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Seattle divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this signifies that you only pay for the legal services your case needs. You will usually 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, identify problem issues in your case and recommend the best alternatives based upon legal suggestions and local understanding. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can determine they don’t understand or don’t want you to understand, simply hang up. They don’t yet get it. Carry on. Don’t inform them.
3. Uses online divorce software that allows you to log into a client portal and inputall of the details in your case.  This not only saves money and time, but it in fact empowers you in your own case. You are the source of all datain your case. Likewise, 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 Seattle 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 Seattle lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Seattle. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Seattle. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Seattle 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 Seattle:

Kent, Tacoma, Everett, Vancouver, Portland, Gresham, Salem, Spokane, Eugene, Boise, Las Vegas