Inexpensive Divorce

Hi C.,
Good for you, I also did my own divorce, I filed in 1996. I borrowed the book from the library "How to do your own divorce." I never even bought the darn thing! After I read through it a few times I felt I had the knowledge. I consulted with a lawyer 1 time, he supported "in pro per" people, charged me $75. and let me know I had everything in order. We went to a mediator for visitation and that was it. Back then it cost me a total of around $250. There is legal advice at the court house downtown Long Beach, cheap or free.
Go Girl, it's not that hard,
Wendy

There are books, free advice, etc. and if you are reasonably intelligent you can do it yourself for a few hundreds bucks. HOWEVER, if you have children, you MUST make sure the custody and support parts of your divorce agreement are in place. I would recommend a mediator or someone well-versed in child custody issues to help you think of things you and your soon-to-be ex-husband may not be thinking of. It is great that you are both agreeable now, but circumstances change. What happens if you get no child support for your child and he goes on to marry a woman with children (or has other children with her) and spends most of his money on them? What if she resents the time and money he spends on/with your child and you no longer think that it is adequate? You must have a mechanism for remedying this situation.

Good luck.

I went through icandocs.org very easy~

Good luck~

You will have to find out your state laws. If you don't have children you can file yourself and in many states it's just a matter of paperwork.
If you have children, I believe in most states you have to have a court approved parenting plan and custody set up, even when you are agreeable.

I just googled 'online divorce california' and came up with the following URL. Its worth a shot.

http://www.divorcewriter.com/Start_the_process.asp?src=g_...

M.

You can go to your local courthouse and there should be a self-help center with volunteers that can answer any questions you may have. I do recommend seeing a lawyer first because divorce can be tricky and there are certain laws in place in the state of California. I do not understand why you do not want child support for your children, but you should really look into it. I do not recommend going through the state for that because it can take up to a year to get things in order and paying for a lawyer will be well worth it. And one side note a paralegal legally and ethically can not guide you in a any legal manner. Hope this helps and best wishes!!

Jenny
current paralegal student and soon to be law student!

I live in Los Angeles county, and they have a free program to assist anyone who wants help to fill out the paperwork correctly. I did this and it was very helpful. The only thing I was charged was filing the actual paperwork. Look online for what your county does, or you might have to call, but I'm sure there will be assistance for you. My ex and I were not fighting at all either, we just wanted to move on with our lives, so it was perfect. Best of luck to you, and your future.