1. How many of these statements do you think are true?

A divorce

a) is a legal dissolution of the bonds of matrimony.
b) is filing a few forms and getting a judge to sign the last one.
c) means a lot of decisions have to be made and some loose ends tied up.
d) is not a weapon to use against your spouse.
e) is legally/emotionally desirable only when it is really all over and finished for your marriage, with no doubts and no hope or desire for putting it back together.
f) should not be done when in a highly emotional state.
g) is a lot better when it’s over than when you are thinking it over or doing it.

2. Can you do your own divorce?

3. Should you?

4. What does it mean to retain an attorney?

Answers:

1. All of them are true.

2. Yes. Since Divorce Specialist Attorney Ed Sherman published the first edition of How to Do Your Own Divorce, millions have done their divorces without retaining lawyers, so you can almost certainly do it too.

3. Yes. Most people would be much better off if they did not retain an attorney. The legal process—and the way attorneys work in it—tends to cause trouble, raise the level of conflict, and greatly increase your expense.

4. You are handing over your power and authority to act. Attorneys are trained for an adversarial legal system, so act in ways that will complicate your case and make it worse instead of better. The more trouble you have the more money the attorney makes, which is hardly an incentive to keep things simple. Learn how to use an attorney without retaining one.