How to Find the Best Divorce Lawyer in Tulsa Oklahoma?  - Tulsa Divorce Attorney

It’s a trick question. You don’t need to find the most effective divorce attorney in Tulsa, Oklahoma There are numerous divorce attorneys in Tulsa that would likely do an equally very good undertaking for you. It would definitely be impossible to decide which one is the “best.”

The real question for you, the Tulsa divorce client, is the way to locate one of those Tulsa best divorce lawyers at the appropriate levels of assistance and expense for the facts of your particular situation – while staying clear of all of the common, and sometimes hazardous, mistakes of the Tulsa divorce lawyer hiring choice.

If you understand what those mistakes are (I will advise you in this post) and if you have the correct attitude, specifically that you intend to make your Tulsa divorce lawyer fit your case and not permit the attorney to compel your case to fit his or her stiff practice profile, then you boost greatly your possibilities of nailing the Tulsa divorce lawyer hiring choice. Getting you through that decision efficiently is the purpose of this blog post.

To start with, let’s note the 4 traits to steer clear of:

1. Avoid Do-It-Yourself Divorce:

It is entirely possible, repeat POSSIBLE, to acquire totally free family law documents from Oklahoma’s judicial council or family court web sites. Those totally free divorce documents will be uncompleted, obviously. You can then attempt to complete and record the documents at your neighborhood Tulsa County divorce court on your own without professional assistance. This is possible – however extremely improbable, extremely difficult, confusing, discouraging and extremely slow.

DIY divorce would certainly be essentially unachievable, and not sensible even to try, in any  complicated or contested family law case. It would certainly be extremely improbable to be effective if you have minor children of the marriage or have any assets or debts to be listed in the event or have custody, visitation or support agreements in your matter. It would absolutely be ill-advised in a matter including domestic violence. DIY would certainly also be challenging if you have a job or if you position any kind of worth on your own time. Family law documents and processeses are made by lawyers to puzzle you to ensure that you hire – a lawyer.

Please excuse me if I don’t spend too much time on the DIY danger. My experience on the front lines of California divorce for the past 40+ years is that people that start the divorce procedure with the intent to attempt to obtain a cost-free divorce are going to  attempt Do-It-Yourself divorce whatever. For some reason, most likely economic, there is nothing I have actually had the ability to find to encourage them not to.

DIY in Family Law is always fake affordability. You WILL almost certainly screw it up, and screwed-up proceedings are a lot more difficult and costly to fix and complete. Don’t play this game. The system is made by lawyers to puzzle you and compel you to hire a divorce lawyer. There are now cost-efficient options offered– see listed below. Don’t go it alone in Divorce or Family Law.

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

An uncontested divorce is merely one in which the participants will not be challenging any problems, including the divorce itself. The participants don’t need to be pleased and they don’t need to like each other. They are either entirely or mainly in agreement on all problems and are sensible enough to acknowledge that standard full-representation divorce lawyers (with big retainers and billable hours) would certainly be the only victors if they contested relatively trivial problems in their divorce.

Standard full representation by a regional Tulsa divorce lawyer is when that lawyer will represent you in all aspects of your divorce case. It is extremely likely to be an excellent professional service, yet it is very costly.

If you have a disputed matter, a complicated matter, a high-value matter or a matter that includes domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, full representation by a Tulsa divorce lawyer is NOT to be avoided. It is a prerequisite.

A contested matter means that you and your spouse/partner are contesting ANY issue in the matter. A complex matter has legal complexities such as tax problems, current business problems, a special needs child of the marriage or any one of numerous other intricate legal scenarios. A high-value case denotes that your marital estate is huge. There is no particular dollar limit. Definitely, 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. Hire an experienced and high priced Tulsa divorce lawyer for full conventional representation. Try to find 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 Tulsa divorce lawyer. In fact, under those conditions, full legal representation by a Tulsa divorce lawyer ends up being a risk to your economic position. Avoid it.

Of course, if you call or email a conventional Tulsa divorce lawyer, they will not tell you that you do not require their full representation service. In fact, they will attempt to frighten the crap out of you by informing you that you positively are in need of their service and that your case will get messed up without it.

That could occur– even in a non-DIY case. I’ll inform you next how to keep away from possibly 90+% of the possible danger of getting your case messed up if you don’t go DIY and you DON’T hire a conventional Tulsa divorce attorney on a complete representation basis.

Your case could likewise possibly get messed up if you DID hire a complete representation Tulsa divorce attorney. That’s likewise not likely, however it could possibly take place.

Nevertheless, what will DEFINITELY take place if you hire a conventional full representation Tulsa divorce attorney to manage 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 overpay for them.

There’s no need for that to take place any longer. Your parents had few other options on their family law hiring options. Your grandparents had no other options. You have numerous valid options to make your Tulsa uncontested divorce lawyer hiring decision based upon the nature and facts of your case, not upon the BMW payments of Tulsa divorce lawyers. Keep reading.

3. Avoid Unqualified Unregulated Online Divorce Mills:

This is by far the greatest risk you face in your hiring decision in terms of damage to your future legal and economic safety. Non-lawyer online divorce is a huge industry. And it is extremely hazardous to your legal and economic future.

Online divorce mills use slick sites, wicked-cool divorce software application, charges lower than MOST lawyers, no legal recommendations, no legal knowledge, no professional licensing, no legal education, no code of principles, no malpractice insurance coverage, no knowledge of Tulsa County divorce procedures, no local knowledge about Tulsa County rules of court, local Tulsa County documents, local practices or the policies of individual local judges in the Tulsa area 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 charges average about $300, however what you get for that $300 cost is extremely little– just prepared Oklahoma 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 cash already spent? You are at their whim and you are entirely unprotected. And they realize it!

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

If you choose an online divorce mill, you’ll constantly be dealing with low-level, inexperienced, disinterested, high turn-over staff, call center workers and folks in India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Mexico or some other state. Nobody will conduct any type of analysis on your case to safeguard you and any minor children from future legal or monetary damage. Customer support will be dreadful because it does not 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 of them lie in Tulsa and even in Oklahoma

If you hire an online divorce mill thinking you will conserve yourself a few dollars and you and your household wind up spending for their errors 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 directories like Avvo, FindLaw, LegalZoom, Justia, Google Screened, Google Business Profile (formerly GMB) and now even Yelp. This is the newest pitfall to steer clear of in your Tulsa divorce lawyer hiring choice.

Nevertheless, the possible damage here is not big– 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 Tulsa 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 terribly as if you had actually hired a conventional full representation Tulsa family law attorney directly.

Obviously, you don’t wish to hire a conventional full representation Tulsa divorce attorney you find on a mass-lawyer platform. That would intensify your over-payment, however the essential factor here is that you don’t wish to hire a conventional full representation Tulsa divorce attorney to manage your simple uncontested divorce, no matter where you find that lawyer!!

The danger with hiring a Tulsa divorce attorney that you stumble on ONLY on a mass-lawyer platform is that you’re employing a humdrum Tulsa divorce attorney– a drone who just stands in line with all other Tulsa divorce lawyers and HOPES that s/he will get your business however does nothing to set apart himself or herself from the Tulsa lawyer-crowd. That lawyer does nothing to influence you that s/he is the exceptional resolution to your case. You don’t wish to have that lawyer.

You want to get a Tulsa divorce lawyer who is creative, vibrant, distinct, stylish and business-savvy. In fact, why would you hire a Tulsa divorce lawyer to take care of 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 searching for a divorce lawyer who purposefully sets himself or herself apart from the Tulsa 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 join, which is why every divorce lawyer in Tulsa County will have signed up. So you need to not disqualify a Tulsa divorce lawyer just because s/he has an Avvo account.

Nevertheless, you need to not believe that such a Tulsa divorce lawyer is extremely intelligent 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 start to pay continuously increasing charges on a bid-basis, constantly battling versus other local Tulsa County divorce lawyers, to be seen on the leading page of the platform’s site. If that lawyer does not pay more, s/he’ll be on page 3 or 5 of the mass-lawyer site in even a medium-sized town. If that lawyer does not keep bidding up his or her charges, she’ll not get enough cases to keep up.

It’s a winner-take-all system with the leading extremely few lawyers in each town taking almost all the business– based on just how much advertising charges they can pay– not based on how great they are or on how they have configured their offerings to match your case. The barrier to that me-too lawyer getting your trade 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 Tulsa pays more to the mass-lawyer finder platform and keeps paying more, s/he’ll get a featured position on the platform’s site and will get more sales, however his or her expenses of getting cases will constantly increase while his or her charges are relatively set by the flat demand for consumer law services such as divorce.

The Tulsa divorce lawyer who plays the Avvo pay-to-play scheme will constantly require increasingly more lower revenue cases just to keep up with sales expenses. You don’t want that business-foolishness in somebody you will trust with your legal and economic future.

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

How to Find the Best Tulsa Divorce Lawyer – Tulsa Divorce Attorney

So above are 4 factors to steer clear of: DIY divorce, traditional full-service lawyer representation in simple uncontested cases, unlicensed and uncontrolled online divorce mills and lackluster me-too drone lawyers who are actually bad at business.

So what do you actually look out for in a Tulsa divorce attorney?

Before I advise you, I wish to set the stage by offering you two remarkable statistics that I did not accept when I initially saw them. These are game-changers in the legal profession and you really need to make the most of them in your Tulsa 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 Tulsa 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 Tulsa divorce attorney:

1. Licensed local Tulsa divorce attorney (not an unlicensed out-of-state online divorce mill);
2. Offers unbundled services in uncontested cases– this means that you just purchase the legal services your case needs. 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 evaluate your docs before they are submitted to court, determine problem concerns in your case and recommend the best options based upon legal recommendations and local knowledge. If you call a lawyer and ask about unbundled services and you can tell they don’t understand or don’t want you to understand, just hang up. They don’t yet get it. Carry on. Don’t educate them.
3. Uses online divorce software that allows 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 datain your case. Likewise, there’s no 50-page paper copyone-size-fits-all questionnaire for you to get through 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 Tulsa 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 Tulsa lawyer-crowd. You’re looking for someone with style who stands out, not melds in. 1-800-DIVORCE is exclusive in Tulsa. There is only one 1-800-DIVORCE lawyer in Tulsa. Check here or complete the web form below to see if Tulsa 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 Tulsa:

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma City, Norman, Wichita, Olathe, Topeka, McKinney, Overland Park, Wichita Falls, Frisco, Denton, Kansas City, Plano, Independence, Lewisville, Richardson, Carrollton, Garland, Little Rock, Irving, Mesquite, Dallas, Grand Prairie, Arlington, Fort Worth, Tyler, Columbia, Shreveport, Lincoln, Waco