For many people, saving money whenever possible is human nature. No one wants to spend more money on something than necessary. A penny saved is a penny earned, right?
Take mowing the lawn, for example. I could pay a lawn mowing service to mow my lawn every week, or I can save money and do it myself. While some people may choose to hire a lawn mowing service for one reason or another (lack of time being a big one), many others choose to save the money and do it themselves.
But mowing the lawn is a pretty low-risk project. If the company you hire does a poor job, maybe your lawn doesn’t look the best for a couple days. Big deal. Grass grows back. And when it does, you can hire a different company to mow your lawn next time. Or, you can do it yourself.
Now let’s say you want to remodel your kitchen. A much higher-risk project. Unless you have particular skill in this area, you’re probably going to hire someone to do it for you. The risk of permanently damaging your house in some way is just too great. You know your limitations and leave this one to the professionals.
The same should apply with the divorce process. I see many people who have attempted to do it on their own in an attempt to save money. Lawyers are expensive, so why pay someone to do something they can do themselves? They think they agree on everything with their spouse anyway, so why would they need a lawyer? In their mind, so long as they answer all the questions on the form, they’ve done everything they need to do to get divorced.
Attempting to navigate the divorce process by yourself is really no different than attempting to remodel your own kitchen. You have no idea what you are doing. There are things you haven’t even though of. Online forms can’t provide you with legal advice. You don’t know what you don’t know. You can’t get through the divorce process by filling out a form any more than you can remodel your own kitchen by watching a Youtube video.
If you try to remodel your own kitchen, and totally mess it up, you’ll probably need to hire a contractor to come in and fix your mess. You’ll probably spend more money than if you had just hired the contractor in the first place. Again, the same is true with the divorce process. Hiring a lawyer to complete your divorce can be cheaper than doing it on your own, messing it up in some way, and then hiring a lawyer after-the-fact to clean up the mess.
Get it right the first time and hire a lawyer.
Meet Marc Beyer
Marc Beyer practices in all areas of family law, including divorce, child custody, parenting time, child support, spousal maintenance, and property division. Marc’s philosophy is to negotiate the best settlement possible, but he is prepared to go to trial when necessary. Recognizing that every situation is unique, Marc takes pride in listening to his client’s concerns, and creates goals, expectations, and case strategy for the client accordingly.
Contact Beyer & Simonson
If you are facing divorce and any of the divorce-related issues such as spousal maintenance, child support, child custody, property division, or domestic abuse matters, you need our experienced Minneapolis divorce attorneys to help you. Contact Beyer & Simonson in Edina, Minnesota today at (952) 303-6007.
