The Best Way to DIY Your Divorce

As I’ve said before, we live in the age of DIY-everything. Just last week I was trying some at-home remedies for how to get rid of fruitflies that I found on Pinterest. While DIY may be great for getting rid of bugs and children’s halloween costumes, I get a little nervous when I hear that clients (i.e. you) want to DIY your divorce.

Why does this make me nervous?

I started this site because there was so much misinformation about divorce on the internet. From documents that only need to be filed in certain states to just flat out divorce myths, the internet can be a dangerous place for divorce advice, or really any legal advice at all.

However, I understand that you may just not have the money to hire an attorney to represent you in your divorce. Between the electric bill and saving money for college you just don’t have any room in your budget for a lawyer, even if you follow my tips for saving on legal fees.

Can you relate?

So you decided that you are going to DIY your divorce. However, before you do that, you need to subscribe to my newsletter (shake your head yes) and then read this.

What if I told you that not all divorce forms were created equal?

Over the years, I have had clients present me with pre-prepared divorce forms for postnuptial/settlement agreements, prenuptial agreements, and custody agreements. 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.

The last attempt I saw at a DIY your divorce project was actually a form prenuptial agreement prepared by an old client of mine. A smart guy who had been through the divorce process once before and was ready to get married again. Let’s call him Bob.

Bob figured that because he already knew a lot about divorce and his fiancee and he were obviously on good terms, he could just download a pre-prepared prenuptial agreement form and start filling it out. Luckily he is also smart enough to know that he shouldn’t finish it without having me at least review it for him.

The agreement itself was extensive and included a lot of irrelevant clauses and information. Worse, it also included a lot of provisions that would never have been enforceable by a court in Pennsylvania. They were so bad that it could have gotten the prenup thrown out if it was ever challenged. This could have been really bad for Bob as he had a lot of money and assets that he was protecting with this agreement.

I mean, seriously this form was such a disaster, I couldn’t even edit it for him. I just had to start from scratch!

What if you still want to DIY your Divorce?

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!

However, you know how when you make the fruit salad turkey centerpiece like the one you saw on Pinterest and it just doesn’t come out the same as a picture because you ran out of bananas? Oh wait, is that just me?

Well, the same thing can happen if you DIY your divorce without the right tools.

Luckily there is a company out there that I trust to give you “enough bananas” to DIY your divorce the right way. And they are currently having a sale!

Want to know what it is?

The best way to DIY your divorce is with Nolo!

Again, I am never going to tell you that forms can completely take the place of legal advice. However, if you are going to use some to DIY your divorce, 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. Like me, they are not advocating for lawyers to be replaced by forms! I really like that. I would never recommend client’s use form divorce papers that weren’t prepared by attorneys!

Also, and something that I really love is that they provide state specific forms where appropriate. This is key. You need to make sure that the divorce paperwork that you are using is the right forms for your state. Using anything else is a waste of time as the court will not accept them.

Still aren’t sure if Nolo would be right for you and your case?

Nolo may be right for you if:

• You and your spouse are relatively amicable and are able to discuss financial and child custody issues without the help of a third party;
• There are few assets and/or debts for property division if any at all;
• You and your spouse are W-2 wage earners so determining each other’s income for child support purposes is relatively easy;
• The kind of property that you have does not require valuations or appraisals; and/or
• You have some experience in the family court setting and so have a working knowledge of court procedure.

So what kind of DIY Your Divorce forms are you getting from Nolo?

As I’ve said before, I’m never going to recommend a product to you that I haven’t tried myself or don’t believe in. So before writing this article, I spent a lot of time on Nolo.com reviewing their family law forms and guides.

Nolo offers a variety of divorce and custody forms that you can use, such as a Temporary Child Support and Parenting Plan. They also offer how-to books regarding divorce, child support and child custody. And they don’t just offer legal forms for divorce. You can see a list of the different legal topics that they provide information on here.

I also really 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.

Do you have questions about Nolo? Let me know in the comments!

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