California Divorce Costs | Attorney vs. Legal Document Assistant
Hi! This is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com.
Today we are doing another live broadcast. We’re also having this transcribed at the same time so we can embed this into our blog and uploading this to an audio file. I just hope my computer can keep up with it.
So, today we’re talking about the divorce cost and specifically I want to talk about the difference between the cost of hiring an attorney to do your California divorce or hiring someone like my firm which we are legal document assistance.
First off, let me tell you what a legal document assistant is. We are licensed and bonded to prepare legal documents and we just happen to specialize in the divorce process in California. We are able to work without an attorney in our office and that’s why we are able to provide a more affordable service.
So, let’s get into the divorce cost. Attorney vs. legal document assistant.
So, obviously attorney’s do a much different job than we do.
Mostly, divorce process is completing paperwork. There are occasions where you may need an attorney and that’s if you need legal advice or if you need to be represented in court. Those are the two things that we are unable to do, our license does not allow us to do that and that’s because we are not an attorneys.
So, if you feel that you will need legal advice or you will need to go to court to be represented, then you probably will need an attorney for that.
Let’s back up just a bit and talk about the beginning of the divorce process in California.
The California divorce process is mostly made up of paperwork. You have your initial documents that need to be completed followed by doing your financial disclosures. None of that requires an attorney, in fact, the divorce process in California can be completed entirely by a legal document preparation firm such as ours without any attorney supervision or without you ever needing to speak with an attorney.
Now, we do have clients that start with us and they know they may need an attorney down the road but they wanted to get as much as the paperwork done as possible before going out and hiring an attorney.
So, let’s talk about the cost a little bit. The average cost to have your divorce completed by an attorney and this is some research I’ve done online, you will as well, if you’re to look for it, Is about $20,000 and that is $20,000 per person not just $20,000 total.
We have clients who call us who have spoken with attorneys and they are just shocked by the amount of money that they are going to charge them for their divorce. After the have talked to an attorney, they generally will call our company to find out if there’s another affordable options for their divorce case.
So, when we talk to them, you know, we explained to them the difference. We want people to understand that there is a difference between what attorneys do and what we do. But at the end of the day we can help clients to get through the entire divorce process from start to finish without any attorney supervision and without you ever needing to speak to an attorney.
Now, if we run into trouble and you do need a legal advice, not a problem, we can always refer you to an attorney in your area and you can get legal advice, a consultation if you need be and then we can get right back to work for you if they get to tell you to do something, we can always just do that for you and you don’t have to hire the attorney to do that for you.
My name is Tim Blankenship. We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service specializing in divorce.
When you use our services, we work on a flat fee basis. We do not use a retainer fee. We will quote you a flat fee for the divorce and that will be the total cost from start to finish. We do everything for you from filing the initial paperwork, we prepare all the forms, we take them down to court for you, and this is a complete service from start to finish, meaning from initial forms, to service, to judgment – all for a flat fee.
You can go to our website at divorce661.com and we have some pricing packages you can see based upon the amount of work that needs to be done. If you have children, if you have property that needs to be separated – those are all the determining factors on the total cost of your divorce.
So feel free to look at our pricing page for more information.
Going back to retainers and how those work. Many people tell us that they spoke to an attorney and they told them the cost would be say $3500 or $4000. Now, what that is, is that’s just a retainer. That’s not the total cost of your divorce. The total cost of your divorce is going to be whatever it takes at that attorney’s hourly rate to get the case finished.
So, if they’re asking for $3500 or $4000 or $5000, that number doesn’t really matter. Because they’re going to bill at their hourly rate. So, if it’s $300, $400, $500 an hour. They’re going to bill you at that hourly rate until that money is extinguished. And if your divorce case isn’t finish, you’re on the hook for the difference.
So, that’s how divorce cases can end up in the 10, $20,000 range based on the high attorney hourly rates.
So, if you’re looking for more affordable service to get your divorce completed. If your case is mostly amicable in nature, even if it’s not amicable, even if you know you’re going to need an attorney but you want to save some upfront cost on the document preparation. We could really help you save some money by using our service
So, feel free to give me a call.
My name is Tim Blankenship. Website is divorce661.com.
My direct number is 661-281-0266.
I hope you found this video and audio helpful and please give us a call if you’d like more information about our service. We’d be happy to take your call.
Thanks for reading!