How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Sterling Heights Michigan?  - Sterling Heights Divorce Lawyer

It’s a trick question. You don’t need to find the best divorce lawyer in Sterling Heights, Michigan There are several divorce lawyers in Sterling Heights who would do an equally fine job for you. It would undoubtedly be out of the question to figure out which one is the “best.”

The correct question for you, the Sterling Heights divorce client, is just how to identify just one of those Sterling Heights top divorce attorneys at the appropriate levels of representation and cost for the facts of your particular situation – while steering clear of all of the common, and in some cases harmful, pitfalls of the Sterling Heights divorce attorney hiring decision.

If you recognize what those pitfalls are (I will advise you in this article) and if you have the correct mindset, specifically that you intend to make your Sterling Heights divorce attorney fit your case and not allow the lawyer to compel your case to fit his or her stiff practice profile, after that you boost considerably your possibilities of nailing the Sterling Heights divorce attorney hiring decision. Getting you through that choice effectively is the intention of this post.

First, let’s note the 4 points to avoid:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is feasible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download free family law documents from Michigan’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those free divorce documents will be uncompleted, obviously. You can then try to finish and submit the documents at your regional Macomb County divorce court by yourself without specialist aid. This is feasible – but very improbable, really challenging, confusing, discouraging and exceptionally lengthy.

Do it yourself divorce would certainly be practically unfeasible, and not smart even to try, in any kind of  complex or contended family law matter. It would certainly be very improbable to be a success if you have minor children of the marriage or have any kind of property or debts to be itemized in the event or have custody, visitation or support agreements in your matter. It would absolutely be risky in a case involving domestic physical violence. Do it yourself would certainly also be difficult if you work or if you position any sort of value on your own time. Family law documents and processeses are designed by attorneys to confuse you so that you work with – a lawyer.

Please excuse me if I don’t invest way 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 begin the divorce procedure with the intent to try to get a free divorce are going to  try DIY divorce whatever. For some reason, most likely financial, there is nothing I‘ve been able to find to encourage them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is typically false affordability. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are far more perplexing and costly to remedy and complete. Do not play this game. The system is designed by attorneys to confuse you and compel you to employ a divorce attorney. There are now economical alternatives offered– see below. Do not go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is simply one in which the litigants will not be disputing any kind of concerns, including the divorce itself. The litigants don’t need to be cheerful and they don’t need to care for each other. They are either entirely or mainly in agreement on all concerns and are smart enough to understand that traditional full-representation divorce attorneys (with big retainers and billable hours) would certainly be the only winners if they contended fairly unimportant concerns in their divorce.

Conventional complete representation by a neighborhood Sterling Heights divorce attorney is when that attorney will represent you in all aspects of your divorce case. It is very likely to be an excellent service, yet it is very costly.

If you have a disputed matter, a complex matter, a high-value matter or a case that involves domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, complete representation by a Sterling Heights divorce attorney is NOT to be refrained from. It is a requirement.

A disputed matter denotes that you and your spouse/partner are disputing ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter contains legal complexities such as tax concerns, active business concerns, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of numerous other complicated legal scenarios. A high-value case means that your marital estate is huge. There is no specific dollar limit. Absolutely, if you have a high 7-figure net marital estate or greater, that is a high-value matter.

If you think that you have a disputed,complex or high-value matter, you do. Employ an experienced and high priced Sterling Heights divorce attorney for complete conventional representation. Search for 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 need conventional complete representation by a Sterling Heights divorce attorney. In fact, under those conditions, complete legal representation by a Sterling Heights divorce attorney becomes a threat to your financial position. Avoid it.

Of course, if you call or email a conventional Sterling Heights divorce attorney, 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 sharing with you that you without a doubt require their service which your case will get screwed up without it.

That could possibly happen– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll tell you next how to prevent potentially 90+% of the potential danger of getting your case screwed up if you don’t go DIY and you DON’T employ a conventional Sterling Heights divorce lawyer on a complete representation basis.

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

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY happen if you employ a conventional complete representation Sterling Heights divorce lawyer to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed economically. Your case may be handled extremely well, but you will overbuy unnecessary services and you will overpay for them.

There’s no need for that to happen nowadays. Your mothers and fathers had few other alternatives on their family law hiring decisions. Your grandparents had no other alternatives. You have numerous legitimate alternatives to make your Sterling Heights uncontested divorce attorney hiring choice based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Sterling Heights divorce attorneys. Continue reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the greatest threat you encounter in your hiring choice in terms of damage to your future legal and financial security. Non-lawyer online divorce is a huge market. And it is exceptionally harmful to your legal and financial future.

Online divorce mills provide slick sites, wicked-cool divorce computer software, charges lower than MOST attorneys, no legal recommendations, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of ethics, no malpractice insurance coverage, no knowledge of Macomb County divorce procedures, no local knowledge about Macomb County rules of court, local Macomb County documents, local practices or the policies of specific local judges in the Sterling Heights area and no expert interest in you or your case. And all within a completely unregulated Wild-West market rampant with all kinds of incompetence, price fraud, and up-selling.

Online divorce mill charges average about $300, but what you get for that $300 charge is remarkably little– just prepared Michigan divorce documents. Any other services delivered are all up-sold on the basis that once they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – walk away from 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 good summary of merely a few of the more typical frauds and up-sells to be discovered in the online divorce market.

If you hire an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be contending with low-level, untrained, disinterested, high turn-over personnel, call center workers 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 safeguard you and any minor children from future legal or financial damage. Client support will be horrible due to the fact that it doesn’t need to be anything else. You will never ever have the ability to meet with anyone at an online divorce mill as it is very likely that none are located in Sterling Heights or perhaps in Michigan

If you work with an online divorce mill believing you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your family wind up paying for their errors 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 newest risk to avoid in your Sterling Heights divorce lawyer hiring decision.

Nevertheless, the potential harm here is not huge– nowhere near the damage done consistently by non-lawyer online divorce mills or indeed the damage most likely to be done by you to your own case with DIY divorce.

If you work with a Sterling Heights divorce lawyer you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to overpay to some extent, depending on just how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, but not as terribly as if you had hired a conventional complete representation Sterling Heights family law lawyer directly.

Clearly, you don’t want to employ a conventional complete representation Sterling Heights divorce lawyer you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would intensify your over-payment, but the crucial element here is that you don’t want to employ a conventional complete representation Sterling Heights divorce lawyer to handle your basic uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The danger with hiring a Sterling Heights divorce lawyer that you find ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re working with a run-of-the-mill Sterling Heights divorce lawyer– a drone who just stands in line with all other Sterling Heights divorce attorneys and HOPES that s/he will get your trade but does nothing to set apart himself or herself from the Sterling Heights lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to convince you that s/he is the unequalled solution to your case. You don’t wish to have that lawyer.

You would like a Sterling Heights divorce lawyer who is creative, vibrant, distinct, stylish and business-savvy. In fact, why would you work with a Sterling Heights divorce lawyer to safeguard your own legal and financial interests when s/he does not even look after his or her own business interests strongly and decisively? You’re looking for a divorce lawyer who purposefully sets himself or herself apart from the Sterling Heights lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by signing up with Avvo and doing nothing else.

Mass-lawyer finder platforms like Avvo are totally free to sign up with, which is why every divorce lawyer in Macomb County will have joined. So you need to not disqualify a Sterling Heights divorce lawyer just because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you need to not presume that such a Sterling Heights divorce lawyer is really effective or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are totally free for the lawyer to join, the lawyer needs to then begin to pay continually increasing charges on a bid-basis, constantly contending against other local Macomb County divorce attorneys, to be seen on the top page of the platform’s website. If that lawyer doesn’t 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 doesn’t keep bidding up his or her charges, she’ll not get enough clients to stay in business.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top really few attorneys in each town taking almost all cases– based on just how much advertising charges 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 business 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 Sterling Heights 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 sales, but his or her expenses of getting cases will constantly increase while his or her charges are fairly set by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Sterling Heights divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play game will constantly need more and more lower revenue cases just to keep up with sales expenses. You don’t desire that business-foolishness in someone you will trust with your legal and financial future.

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

How to Find the Best Sterling Heights Divorce Lawyer – Sterling Heights Divorce Lawyer

So above are 4 factors to keep away from: do it yourself divorce, traditional full-service lawyer representation in basic uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and boring me-too drone attorneys who are actually bad at law practice business.

So what do you actually look for in a Sterling Heights divorce lawyer?

Before I advise you, I want to set the stage by providing you two amazing stats that I did not believe 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 Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Sterling Heights divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this indicates that you only pay for the legal services your case actually requires. You will usually 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 filed, recognize problem issues in your case and recommend the very best alternatives based upon legal recommendations and local knowledge. If you call a lawyer and inquire about unbundled services and you can see that they don’t understand or don’t desire you to understand, just hang up. They don’t 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 details 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 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 Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Sterling Heights. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Sterling Heights. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights:

Detroit, Farmington Hills, Ann Arbor, Toledo, Lansing, Cleveland, Akron, Grand Rapids, Fort Wayne, Erie, South Bend, Dayton, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Naperville, Joliet, Elgin, Green Bay, Rockford, Madison, Lexington, Louisville, Syracuse, Springfield, Davenport, Evansville