Can You Represent Yourself In Your Divorce?
Transcript
Can you represent yourself in your own divorce?
Absolutely, you can. You can’t. Just be aware that a judge is going to hold you to the same level as a seasoned attorney.
In other words, a judge is going to expect you to know the rules.
A judge is going to expect you to know the rules of evidence, which means you need to know what evidence is relevant, what evidence you can get in, and what evidence you can try and keep out.
The rules of evidence are rather complex. There’s a lot of intricacies to evidence, what you can get in, what you can keep out.
You may or may not run into objections at a hearing or at trial from the other side when you try and introduce evidence. So you’re going to need to know how to respond appropriately to those objections.
You’re going to need to know how to conduct yourself in the courtroom.
You’re going to need to know how to address the judge. You’re going to need to know all of the rules to follow: rules for discovery, rules for mandatory disclosure, local rules for hearings.
So unless you’ve got the time and the energy to bring yourself up to speed relatively quickly to handle your own divorce, I would highly recommend that you utilize the services of an experienced, ethical professional divorce lawyer.
Where you can, that doesn’t mean you have to hire them to do everything for you. You can hire them for a specific purpose.
For example, maybe you want them to draft all the initial documents for you and file them with the court. You can hire a lawyer to do just that.
Or maybe you want a lawyer to help prepare your case for mediation and to represent you at a mediation. You can do that too.
Or maybe you want your lawyer to just handle the discovery phase, where you’re trying to get information from your other spouse. You can hire a lawyer just to do that too.
You can also hire a lawyer to act as your consultant, so you can pay that lawyer by the hour or however that lawyer might charge to consult with you when you have questions and to guide you.
So there are lots of options for you.
But the answer to the question, “Can you represent yourself in your own divorce?”
Absolutely, you can.
