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751 - How Does Uncontested Divorce Work with Lee?It's not necessary for you and your spouse to agree on everything before you come to my office. Ideally, you will come to the session with a broad understanding of what you're trying to accomplish. I may spot issues that neither of you has thought about, and I'll help you think through options to resolve any disagreements between the two of you. All I ask is that you each be willing to listen to each other and to explore various ways of accomplishing each other's goals. It's up to you whether both of you come or only one of you. I can work either way. If you're both able to sit in the same room and work through the issues you face, you'll generally spend less time if you both come, because you'll both see how the documents take shape, you'll both hear the descriptions of the issues, and you'll both have a chance to respond to the issues in real time. On the other hand, if one of you doesn't want to come, or physically cannot come because you're in another state, that's okay. I'll work with the spouse who comes and put together the documents. You can sign them in my office and take them to your spouse for signing, then return them to me for filing. I don't care how you dress, as long as you're reasonably clean and that if you have mud on your shoes you take them off at the door. Beyond that, it's up to you. Please don't bring your children to my office. I don't have child care available. Children don't need to hear about the issues of your divorce. They will slow you down and therefore increase what you pay to me. Please make other arrangements for them when you come to my office. I work on a laptop computer with an LCD projector in my office. I will first gather information about the two of you and build a database record. I will then use a spreadsheet that pulls information from the database record to calculate your child support and show you how the guidelines work. Then I will use a word processor that pulls information from the database record to create all the documents needed for your uncontested divorce and show you how they fit together. With most couples, I spend the bulk of the time on the Agreement between the two of you, which is where the rubber hits the road on the issues of your divorce. It's here that you will set out your parenting plan, how you're going to divide your property and debts, and who is going to provide what support to whom. All my forms are pre‑drafted, with multiple alternative clauses to deal with each issue, so There's a minimum of drafting to finish your documents. You see them take shape on a big screen in my office and will be able to make changes on them in real time as we prepare them. When your documents are finished, I will print them for you. If you want to, you can sign them that day, but there's no requirement that you do that. One or both of you may want to take them with you for more careful review before you sign them, and that's fine. If you later agree to make changes to them, everything is on computer; changes are usually quick and inexpensive. A note about pace. I've spent thousands of hours, and a great deal of money, to be able to assemble the documents for your divorce really quickly. I pride myself on the speed with which I'm able to build the documents for a divorce, even a divorce involving several million dollars in assets and tricky tax issues. The reason I have done this, though, is so neither spouse feels rushed. I think it's important that both spouses have a sense of complete control over the pace at which their divorce moves. A few years ago McDonald's ran an advertising campaign based on "We serve it fast so you can eat nice and slow." That's the way I feel about divorce. There's a separate message number 752 called "What information will Lee need?" Alabama Family Law Center serves clients who need to get through divorce and who are able to be reasonably cooperative. The goal is for both spouses to survive divorce and move on with their lives with some money in their pockets and their dignity intact. No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. If you'd like to make an appointment with me, call 205-979-6960. Or you can click here to return to the Divorce Line. |
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