When it comes to family law attorneys in the Santa Clarita valley, you only have a handful of choices. Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty out here, but it is still a small community.
Many divorce attorneys in the Santa Clarita Valley are what you call “Solo Practitioners”. This means that they practice alone without a partner attorney. In most cases, this also means that they do not have any staff such as a receptionist or paralegal to assist them.
This brings me to the topic I wanted to address. If you are working with a solo practitioner who does not have a staff or paralegal assisting them, you are going to end up paying the attorney’s hourly rate for everything that is done on your divorce case.
Case in point. I had a new client that had me file their divorce case. She just wanted to file the petition and get things started with our company because she felt there was a good chance she would need a divorce attorney down the road.
So we filed the summons and petition and had her spouse served. She then went on a consultation with a divorce attorney in Santa Clarita. The divorce attorney was a solo practitioner with no staff or paralegal to assist him. So she asked what his hourly rate is. He responded that he charges $300 per hour.
The next step for her was to complete her financial disclosures. This is hardly a process that requires and attorney to prepare. What shocked me was that the attorney actually advised her to continue working with us to prepare her financial disclosures because it would be cheaper.
If she was to use this attorney’s services at this point, she would be looking at spending around $1,500 to complete her financial disclosures. We can do that for a fraction of that cost.
I have talked about this many times in the past. There is no reason to hire an attorney until you need them for legal advice or to represent you in court.
This client did exactly what someone should do who is looking to save money on their divorce, even if they need an attorney. She hired our divorce legal to get the process started. She had us file the summons and petition and have her spouse served. We are preparing her financial disclosures and serving those as wel and are completing the filing with the court.
Now she can take her completed documents over to her attorney who can now litigate her divorce if necessary. For more information you can read the article where we discuss having us start your divorce in Santa Clarita even if you know you will need an attorney by clicking on this link.