I write pretty often about those cheap online divorce services you can find on the Internet. And today I want to tell you how these types of services can actually end up costing you more money in the end and how you could have had our Santa Clarita divorce service handle the entire case for you for less.
I received a call from a gentleman who used one of these online divorce document services. They paid around $300 for the documents to be prepared by them filing out a questionnaire. They received the divorce forms and were left confused by what they had to do next.
So they started following the 20 pages of directions they received along with their completed forms. Step one said they should file the divorce summons and petition. They did this and paid the $435 fee.
In step 2, the instructions said for the Respondent to file the Response. So they went down to the courthouse and filed the Response and paid another $435 filing fee.
Filing this Response and paying this fee was totally unnecessary and a waste of their money!
When you are going through an uncontested or amicable divorce, there is no need to file a Response. There is a process called a Hybrid Divorce in California which allows you to go through the divorce process and only have to pay one fee.
So let’s do the math. Because they wanted to save money (which we all do) they used an online divorce document assembly service at a cost of $300. Next they filed a Summons and a Response. At $435 each that’s $870. Combined, they have spent $1,170 on their divorce.
Not to mention that they had to do everything themselves. They had to prepare all their own forms. Figure out how to file and serve all the documents. And they have not even prepared or filed their judgment which is the most difficult task!
They could have used our Santa Clarita divorce service and paid less than $1,170 including our fees and the court costs. We would have prepared each and every document and filed and served them. These folks would not have had to lift a finger or waste their valuable time trying to figure things out on their own.
Unfortunately, this happens all the time and I get clients calling me who have had trouble completing their divorce with these types of services.
Don’t get tricked into using these cheap online divorce services.
Use our licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in Divorce. We take care of everything and will save you money and frustration in the end.