Today, many people decide to handle their own divorce, without the necessity of an attorney. This is much easier to do today, especially in Washington, as there are mandatory forms with instructions to help people to do it themselves.
Unfortunately, without the assistance of an attorney, there are many problems that be created, because the typical person does not know the issues to look for. The following are some of the problems that I have seen over the years:
- Being too general.
- Failure to list assets, especially retirement funds, assuming they go to the person who earned them (bad assumptions).
- Failure to include the legal description of real estate.
- Failure to provide security for a transfer payment.
- Failure to specifically spell out how and when a lien (transfer payment) is to be paid off.
- Not being specific enough in the Parenting Plan.
- Filing in Lincoln County instead of the county where they reside, making enforcement and/or modification in the future more difficult.
These problems may not be obvious at first, and are not realized until months or years later. When they do become obvious, they are much more difficult and expensive to unravel. You can do your own divorce, but you assume the risk of doing so. When you have an attorney do it, they assume that risk for you, and have the professional training and experience to do it properly. If you do it yourself, at a minimum you should have an attorney review your paperwork, so that obvious errors can be identified.
The Renton law firm of Mogren, Glessner & Roti, represents clients in a variety of family law cases, both contested and uncontested. We have 4 attorneys for you to chose from. Please visit our web page at Renton Divorce Law Firm for more information.
