When many people are undergoing a divorce, they find divorce lawyers to guide them through the process. Unfortunately, not everyone has the financial muscle to hire an attorney.

If you are broke you must be wondering, what if I can’t afford a divorce lawyer? Am I doomed?

The good news is that you aren’t doomed as you have plenty of options. Some of these options include:

Get a pro bono attorney

A pro bono attorney is an attorney who will represent you without charging you legal fees. If you are seriously strapped for money and you can’t afford an attorney, get in touch with Legal Aid and they will appoint an attorney for you.

While a pro bono attorney is such a savior, you might not find him/her at the time of your divorce as in most cases, Legal Aid has a long waiting list. In some cases, you have to meet certain income requirements and if your income is higher than the threshold, you can’t get free representation.

If you aren’t making much progress with legal aid, try your luck with the local bar association. The bar associations will point you in the direction of an experienced pro or low bono legal services provider who will provide you with the guidance you are looking for.

Get a court-appointed attorney

If you have no money to hire an attorney and your case involves custody, visitation or order of protection issues, you can ask the judge to assign you a free lawyer to represent you.

You should note that even when the judge assigns you an attorney, the attorney will handle the custody/visitation or the order of protection and you will have to represent yourself in the other areas of the case such as dealing with financial issues.

Like with Legal Aid, there is an income threshold you have to meet before the judge appoints a free attorney and you have to provide proof that you can’t afford an attorney.

Have your spouse pay for the lawyer

Is your spouse loaded and they can afford to pay a lawyer? You should bring it to the judge and the judge can order your spouse to pay the attorney fees.

You should make a motion about this issue and the monied spouse will give an argument as to why they shouldn’t pay. After hearing the case, the judge will determine whether your monied spouse should make the payment and once the motion is granted, your lawyer gets paid directly from your spouse’s account.

Go to family court

If the only issues you are having in your divorce are child custody and support and you can’t afford an attorney, consider going to a family court before you start the divorce action.

The reason for this is because it’s easier to represent yourself in a family court and once you have obtained the custody and support orders, now you can proceed with an uncontested divorce.

Get a loan

If you are expecting a large amount of money in the future such as from the sale of assets, but you currently have no money to hire top rated divorce lawyers Fairfax VA, consider borrowing some money and once the divorce is over and you can sell some of the assets, sell them and pay the loan.

There are plenty of ways you can obtain a loan. You can use your credit card, borrow from friends and relatives or go the bank way.

Represent yourself

Has everything gone against you but you are confident in your abilities? Represent yourself and fight your way to what you deserve.