You can buy a packet of forms to handle your own divorce from beginning to end. There are websites touting the cost savings of doing your own divorce. In the current economy, it is completely understandable that people want to try to save money wherever they can. When people are divorcing, money can be very tight. But do you really “save” money by handling it yourself? Let’s look at just a couple of real life examples.

• A couple drafted their own agreement when they divorced. The Husband had been in the military. Wife later learned that because she did not know to include certain critical language in their agreement, she had foregone assets worth about $40,000.
• Another couple drafted their own agreement. They had children. They were going to have out-of-pocket costs for the children for health care expenses not covered by health insurance, such as co-pays, emergency room visits and prescriptions. After the divorce, Husband refused to share in the expenses. Unfortunately, their agreement was silent on how these expenses would get paid. Wife eventually had to spend a large amount of money to return to court to get the court to require both parents to share in those expenses.
• In another case, a young woman had purchased a stack of generic forms from a store and filled them in. She filed them with the court to get her divorce started. Unfortunately, the court rejected them because they were missing important language that Kentucky legal documents require. Her case was delayed while she started all over again the “right way”.

These situations could have been prevented if a family law attorney had worked with any of these people. The outcomes could have been avoided, and some could have been avoided for far less cost than what people ended up having to pay an attorney to fix the problem.

The reality is that it is seldom wise for someone without legal training to try to handle a legal issue without any input at all. At the very least, even a one-hour meeting with an attorney can make a huge difference. At Clark, Cornett and Smith, we are sensitive to the financial concerns of our clients. We will work with our clients, being aware of their financial situation, but protecting them from costly errors as well.