Can I use divorce forms instead of a lawyer?

We live in the era of DIY-everything. I mean, look at Pinterest. The legal field is not exempt. Over the years, I have had clients present me with pre-prepared divorce forms for postnuptial/settlement agreements, prenuptial agreements, and custody agreements. These are not the same as the forms and filing instructions that an unrepresented party may find on a court’s website. Rather, the divorce forms I will be discussing in this post are form agreements where the parties only need to add in dates, times, and amounts to resolve their custody and property disputes.

These divorce forms are not being provided by a state or county. Instead, they are being offered by third parties, sometimes for a fee. The quality of these form agreements varies greatly.

I understand that people want to save money in their divorce, particularly if they have few assets and are in agreement on most issues. In fact, I understand it so much that I wrote a post about six ways to keep your legal fees down! You can check it out here.

However, when reviewing any divorce forms that you find, keep in mind the following :

• These divorce forms are not state or case specific;
• Key contract language may be missing; and
• The forms may include irrelevant or unenforceable language.

These divorce forms are often not state specific.

When deciding whether to use a form agreement, please keep in mind that every state (or jurisdiction if you are outside the United States) has different laws regarding divorce, custody and support. Some of the divorce forms I have seen are not state specific and contain language that would be in violation of Pennsylvania law. A Court may reject the form agreement as it does not meet the requirements of the laws of that state.

If that happens, not only will the agreement be ineffective, the parties will have to revise it. As we know, it’s often hard to get divorcing spouses to agree the first time. Who wants to try again because of an error that could have been avoided if an attorney had prepared or, at a minimum, reviewed the agreement?

These divorce forms are not case specific.

There is no such thing as a cookie-cutter divorce. Most of these forms simply ask the parties to plug in basic information without taking into consideration unusual circumstances or their settlement goals. I also find that these forms do not address a lot of “what if” scenarios that could occur.

For example, what if your spouse stops paying on the joint car loan after divorce or, what if one party wants to change the children’s school? A form won’t anticipate these potential future hazards. An attorney will.

These divorce forms may be missing key contract language.

In law school, lawyers learn about certain principles that are required to make a contract between two parties valid and enforceable. If that language is missing, a court may decline to hold the other party accountable for what they agreed to do in the settlement agreement. This is biggest error that I have seen in these divorce form agreements.

This is dangerous! Why?

Let me explain. Why would you want to enter into a contract that has no teeth? Talk about a waste of time and money! This contract language is basic and usually not controversial. Who wants their agreement to be thrown out because it didn’t include standard terms? Again, a simple attorney review would be able to catch these mistakes.

These divorce forms may include unenforceable and irrelevant language.

Some of these divorce forms ask the parties to agree upon terms that are simply not enforceable in the court system or necessary to make a valid contract. While I see this issue most often in form custody agreements, I saw it recently in a form prenuptial agreement.

This form prenuptial agreement asked the parties to come to an accord regarding future children and child support. Those provisions are not enforceable.

It also asked the parties about their credit scores. This is irrelevant.

Some of the topics presented in these forms may be useful to you and your partner to guide discussions about finances and co-parenting. However, they have no place in the final agreement. Remember, sometimes less is more.

Still want to DIY Divorce? Check out Nolo.com.

Again, forms should not take the place of legal advice. However, If you are going to use one, I suggest that you use check out Nolo.com.

Nolo is staffed by attorneys and provides basic legal forms to help consumers and small business owners handle small legal issues themselves. They are not advocating for lawyers to be replaced by forms and they also provide state specific forms where appropriate.

In reviewing their site, they offer a variety of family law forms that you can use such as one for a Temporary Child Support and Parenting Plan. They also offer how-to books regarding divorce, child support and child custody. You can see a list of the different legal topics that they provide information on here.

I like the fact that they are staffed by attorneys. This way, you know that the forms have been vetted and are tailored to the requirements of your state. You will also avoid the issue of the court rejecting them as not following their guidelines.

What’s the bottom line about divorce forms?

While divorce form agreements may be useful to facilitate communication with your partner/spouse about tough topics, they do not and should not take the place of the years of education and experience that a competent family law attorney can provide.

At the very least, I suggest paying an attorney to review your prepared document and provide their opinion as to its value before signing. Think of it as an investment in your piece of mind.

Have you ever used divorce forms? Let me know in the comments!

Related: Six tips to save money on your legal fees

Related: Will my spouse have to pay for my legal fees?

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