You will often hear people in good talking terms with their ex-spouses asking, do I need a divorce lawyer if we agree on everything?
Unfortunately, even if you have an amicable divorce, you still need divorce lawyers by your side. The lawyers will help you in different areas of the process, including:
Ensure that you include “everything.”
When many separating couples say that they have agreed on everything, what they mean is they have agreed on how much they will contribute to child support, spousal support, and time with children. While this is an excellent step towards the right direction, it’s not everything that should be included in a divorce agreement.
The divorce attorney will ensure all the details are included in the divorce agreement. This includes:
- Detailed parenting schedule
- Child support specifics
- Spousal support specifics
- Life insurance beneficiaries provisions
- Division of the retirement accounts
- Details about the sale of the family house
Help you properly draft the divorce agreement
Besides ensuring that you cover all areas of your divorce, the divorce attorney will also help you draft an appropriate and thorough divorce agreement that covers your rights and obligations.
As laymen, you most likely don’t know how to properly put together a divorce agreement, so even if you have agreed on everything with your spouse, you might make a mistake in the agreement leading to major unintended consequences.
Divorce attorneys are highly trained in legal writing and analysis, so they will use the right language that won’t cause issues in the future.
Even if you plan to create your own divorce agreement, hire an attorney to review the agreement before signing it. The attorney will help weed out any coarse language or add more details to “sweeten” the agreement.
Prevent you sign an unfair agreement
Remember that a lawyer is your legal guardian angel, and he is there to protect you. Before you sign any agreement, even if you have agreed on everything, it’s wise to ask the attorney to go over it and pick any problematic areas.
Besides the bad language, the attorney will help you know whether the agreement is fair.
Sometimes due to the need to get out of a long and tedious process, you might overlook some things that might come to bite you in the future.
Many people believe that lawyers will come to change their agreement, but this isn’t the case. Lawyers are comfortable and ready to accept the client’s decision, but it has to reflect the best-case scenario.
The attorney will help point out the areas that might be unfair for you. For example, if you are paying too much child support than you should, or you aren’t getting enough time with your children.
If an attorney goes through the agreement and thinks that it’s unfair and you could have got a better deal, they will tell you, and if you want to make any modifications, help you do it.
When shouldn’t you bother with a lawyer?
While it’s good to hire family lawyers Fairfax VA in any divorce, in some cases, it’s pointless as you end up wasting money. If you have no children or marital assets to divide, you can represent yourself in court.
You can also choose to represent yourself if you have an uncontested divorce and you have been divorced before.
Since you have been through the process before, you are knowledgeable on how to go about it. You only need to choose a packet designed to help those representing themselves at the county court.
