Do you need to hire a divorce attorney for your divorce? Although many people may benefit from working with a family law attorney, you will find that they are not always needed. When you have a relatively simple divorce, you can handle a lot of things on your own or with the help of a paralegal.
A paralegal has the benefit of being more affordable than hiring an attorney to take on the case, and it could be something you want to do. However, you have to understand both the pros and the cons of using a paralegal.
What Is a Paralegal and How Can They Help in a Divorce?
Paralegals are professionals who have undergone training and education to assist with different types of legal matters. However, this doesn’t mean they can practice law as an attorney can do. They are essentially legal assistants who can provide a range of different types of services and help. Let’s get a closer look at some of the things they can do to make your life easier.
Help You Learn More About the Divorce
If you are like most people, you don’t have a vast wealth of knowledge when it comes to divorces. You may only know about the intricacies of divorce by things you have seen on TV with celebrity divorces or the little bits you’ve heard from friends who have been divorced. You don’t know the statutes and you don’t know what to do or how to proceed.
Because you don’t know much about divorce, it can be intimidating. You don’t know what you need to do to file your paperwork if you are the one who wants the divorce. You don’t know how to file a response. All of the paperwork seems difficult, and you are struggling to figure out the difference between separate and community property.
Although the paralegal can’t give you legal advice, they can let you know more about divorce and how the process works in Arizona. This knowledge is highly valuable, and it comes at a lower rate than working with an attorney.
Help to Prepare Documents and Submit Them
Divorce tends to have quite a bit of paperwork. Some papers need to be filled out properly and filed with the courts on certain dates. All of this can become confusing, and if you aren’t careful, you could file incorrectly or late. Either of these could cause some serious problems for you down the line. When you are working with a paralegal, though, you won’t have these worries.
The paralegal can draft documents for you, help you understand all of the paperwork and fill it out, and then let you know how, where, and when it needs to be filed. This will save you from making some costly mistakes.
Tell You How to Serve Divorce Papers
If you are the one who is filing for divorce, you are required to have your spouse served with divorce papers. The paralegal you are working with can let you know about the various options you have for divorce paper service whether you hire a process server or have the paperwork delivered through the mail.
The Paralegal Makes Things Cheaper
One of the reasons that so many people are considering choosing to work with paralegals for some or all of their divorce is the cost. It will be more affordable for you to hire a paralegal than an attorney to help with the matters listed above. If you are worried about the financial burden of divorce, this could be a good idea for you.
What Can’t the Paralegal Do?
Although they can provide you with the services and benefits mentioned above, they are not attorneys. This means they are not going to be able to represent you if you have to go into litigation. It also means they can’t provide you with any sort of legal advice. They are there to help you with the paperwork and to let you know how to file things.
It’s cheaper for you to work with the paralegal than it will be to work with an attorney for those things. After all, you would be hiring the attorney by the hour in most cases. This means that each time you have them do something, from filling out a form to answering a simple question on where to go, you are going to be charged. It’s better to have these charges applied to a more affordable paralegal.
If you need more help than the paralegal can provide, they will let you know. They like their jobs and don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize them. If you have a question that only an attorney can answer, they will tell you that you should talk with a divorce lawyer.
Find a Good Paralegal
Just as you would put in the time and effort to make sure you find a reputable attorney you have to do the same with a paralegal. Learn more about their experience and how long they have been working in the field. Do they work with a lot of divorces or do they help with other types of cases? For example, a paralegal that has only worked with real estate cases may not have as much knowledge and experience about divorce. You want someone who regularly works with high-quality, reputable divorce attorneys.
When you choose to work with a paralegal, it can help to make a lot of the stress from the divorce diminish. They can handle the paperwork and let you know what you need to do. Even better, you won’t have to worry quite so much about finances since working with a paralegal is affordable.
Sometimes, you may be able to find paralegals working in the office of a great divorce attorney. You can use the paralegals for the paperwork and then only engage the services of the attorneys when you need legal advice or someone to represent you in negotiations or court.
