How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Tampa Florida?  - Family Law Attorneys Tampa - Divorce Attorney Tampa Florida

It’s a trick question. You do not want to locate the very best divorce attorney in Tampa, Florida There are a lot of divorce lawyers in Tampa who will do an equally great undertaking for you. It would definitely be impracticable to decide on which one is the “absolute best.”

The legitimate question for you, the Tampa divorce consumer, is how to find just one of those Tampa best divorce lawyers at the right levels of assistance and also expense for the aspects of your particular situation – while steering clear of all of the usual, and also often dangerous, mistakes of the Tampa divorce lawyer hiring decision.

If you know what those mistakes are (I will tell you in this blog post) and also if you have the correct attitude, particularly that you intend to make your Tampa divorce lawyer fit your situation and also not allow the lawyer to require your situation to fit his or her rigid practice profile, then you boost substantially your opportunities of nailing the Tampa divorce lawyer employing decision. Getting you through that selection successfully is the intention of this post.

To begin with, let’s list the 4 factors to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is entirely possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to download free family law documents from Florida’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those free divorce documents are going to be uncompleted, obviously. You can then try to finish and also submit the documents at your neighborhood Hillsborough County divorce court by yourself without expert aid. This is possible – but highly improbable, very challenging, complex, discouraging and also exceptionally lengthy.

DIY divorce would be essentially unattainable, and also not wise even to attempt, in any  complex or contended family law process. It would be highly improbable to be successful if you have minor children of the marriage or have any assets or financial debts to be detailed in case or have custody, visitation or support arrangements in your case. It would certainly be ill-advised in a matter including domestic physical violence. DIY would likewise be challenging if you have a job or if you place any sort of value on your own time. Family law forms and also procedures are created by lawyers to confuse you so that you employ – an attorney.

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 get a cost-free divorce are going to  try DIY divorce whatever. For one reason or another, probably economic, there is nothing I have actually been able to discover to persuade them not to.

Do It Yourself in Family Law is consistently false economy. You WILL probably screw it up, and also screwed-up proceedings are much more troublesome and also very expensive to fix and also finalize. Don’t play this game. The system is created by lawyers to confuse you and also require you to employ a divorce lawyer. There are now cost-efficient options readily available– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is just one in which the litigants will not be challenging any issues, including the divorce itself. The litigants do not have to be happy and also they do not have to like each other. They are either entirely or mainly in agreement on all issues and also are wise enough to realize that traditional full-representation divorce lawyers (with substantial retainers and also billable hours) would be the only victors if they contended reasonably inconsequential issues in their divorce.

Standard full representation by a local Tampa divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all aspects of your divorce litigation. It is highly likely to be an excellent service, yet it is way over-priced.

If you have a disputed matter, a complex matter, a high-value matter or a matter that entails domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, full representation by a Tampa divorce lawyer is NOT to be evaded. It is a necessity.

A disputed matter denotes that you and also your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the matter. A complicated matter has legal intricacies such as tax issues, active business issues, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of many other intricate legal situations. A high-value case means that your marital estate is large. There is no particular 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,complicated or high-value matter, you do. Employ an experienced and also high priced Tampa divorce lawyer for full 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 full representation by a Tampa divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, full legal representation by a Tampa divorce lawyer ends up being a danger to your economic position. Stay clear of it.

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

That could possibly come to pass– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll tell you next how to prevent potentially 90+% of the prospective danger of getting your case messed up if you do not go DIY and you DON’T employ a traditional Tampa divorce lawyer on a full representation basis.

Your case could also potentially get messed up if you DID employ a full representation Tampa divorce lawyer. That’s also not probable, however it could possibly take place.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY take place if you employ a traditional full representation Tampa divorce lawyer to handle your uncontested divorce or family law case is that you will get screwed financially. Your case may be dealt with extremely well, however you will overbuy unneeded services and you will pay too much for them.

There’s no need for that to take place nowadays. Your mothers and fathers had few other options on their family law employing decisions. Your grandparents had no other options. You have lots of legitimate options to make your Tampa uncontested divorce lawyer employing selection based upon the nature and truths of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Tampa divorce lawyers. Read on.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is without a doubt the most significant risk you encounter in your employing selection in regards to damage to your future legal and economic safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a big market. And it is exceptionally dangerous to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills provide slick sites, wicked-cool divorce software applications, charges lower than MOST lawyers, no legal guidance, no legal understanding, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance coverage, no understanding of Hillsborough County divorce procedures, no local understanding about Hillsborough County guidelines of court, local Hillsborough County forms, local practices or the policies of individual local judges in the Tampa region and no professional interest in you or your case. And all within a completely unregulated 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 Florida divorce documents. Any other services provided are all up-sold on the basis that as soon as they’ve got you hooked, what are you going to do – leave cash already invested? You are at their mercy and you are entirely unprotected. And they recognize it!

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

If you choose an online divorce mill, you’ll always be contending with low-level, inexperienced, indifferent, high turn-over personnel, call center workers and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. No one will carry out any kind of analysis on your case to safeguard you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Client support will be horrible because it does not have to be anything else. You will never ever be able to consult with anyone at an online divorce mill as it is highly likely that none of them lie in Tampa or even in Florida

If you employ an online divorce mill believing you will save yourself a few dollars and you and your household 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 directory sites like Avvo, FindLaw, LegalZoom, Justia, Google Screened, Google Business Profile (formerly GMB) and now even Yelp. This is the most recent pitfall to steer clear of in your Tampa divorce lawyer employing decision.

Nevertheless, the prospective damage here is not huge– nowhere near the damage done consistently 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 employ a Tampa divorce lawyer you found on a mass-lawyer finder platform, you’re going to pay too much to some extent, depending on how much the lawyer is paying the lawyer finder platform, however not as badly as if you had employed a traditional full representation Tampa family law lawyer straight up.

Certainly, you do not wish to employ a traditional full representation Tampa divorce lawyer 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 full representation Tampa divorce lawyer to handle your simple uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The danger with employing a Tampa divorce lawyer that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re employing a below average Tampa divorce lawyer– a drone who simply stands in line with all other Tampa divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your business however does nothing to distinguish himself or herself from the Tampa lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to persuade you that s/he is the best resolution to your case. You do not want to have that lawyer.

You could do with a Tampa divorce lawyer who is imaginative, bold, one-of-a-kind, stylish and business-savvy. In fact, why would you employ a Tampa divorce lawyer to safeguard your own legal and economic interests when s/he does not even care for his or her own business interests aggressively and decisively? You’re looking for a divorce lawyer who intentionally sets himself or herself apart from the Tampa lawyer-crowd and does NOT blend in by joining Avvo and doing nothing else.

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

Nevertheless, you ought to not presume that such a Tampa divorce lawyer is very clever or business-savvy either. The problem is that while these mass-lawyer platforms are free for the lawyer to register with, the lawyer must then start to pay continuously increasing charges on a bid-basis, always battling versus other local Hillsborough County divorce lawyers, to be seen on the top page of the platform’s website. If that lawyer does not 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 does not keep bidding up his or her charges, she’ll not get enough clients to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the top very few lawyers in each town taking almost all clients– based upon how much advertising charges they can pay– not based upon how excellent they are or on how they have actually configured their offerings to match your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your case is the amount of cash 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 Tampa 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 sales, however his or her expenses of getting cases will constantly rise while his or her charges are reasonably set by the flat need for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Tampa divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will always need increasingly more lower revenue cases simply to stay on top of sales expenses. 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 use the same brain to care for your case as s/he used to screw his or her own business into the ground.

How to Find the Best Tampa Divorce Lawyer – Family Law Attorneys Tampa - Divorce Attorney Tampa Florida

So above are 4 factors to abstain from: do it yourself divorce, conventional full-service lawyer representation in simple uncontested cases, unlicensed and unregulated online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone lawyers who are actually bad at law practice business.

So what do you in fact look out for in a Tampa divorce lawyer?

Before I tell you, I wish to set the stage by giving you two impressive stats that I did not believe when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you need to make the most of them in your Tampa divorce lawyer employing 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 Tampa 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 Tampa divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Tampa divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this signifies that you just buy the legal services your case needs. You will normally do your own filing of docs at court and arrange for the service of filed docs on your spouse/partner. The divorce lawyer will examine your docs before they are filed, recognize problem issues in your case and recommend the very best options based upon legal guidance 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, simply hang up. They do not yet get it. Carry on. Don’t educate them.
3. Uses online divorce software that enables you to log into a client portal and inputall of the personal data in your case.  This not only conserves money and time, 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 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 Tampa 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 Tampa lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Tampa. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Tampa. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Tampa has a 1-800-DIVORCE.

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