Should I use an online divorce resource to avoid hiring an attorney?

Divorce is a scary – and potentially expensive – process, so it’s no wonder that you want to explore all of your alternatives before you commit to a specific course of action.  Is there any way at all that you can avoid hiring an attorney?  Can you use one of the online do it yourself...

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In Virginia, there is no requirement that you hire an attorney to represent you in a divorce or custody case, whether at the juvenile or circuit court level (or even beyond, if your case merits an appeal). If you choose not to hire an attorney, you represent yourself.  We call people who represent themselves pro...

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A Quick Virginia Divorce

  Once you (and your spouse) have made the decision to divorce, you start to worry. How long is it going to take? How much is it going to cost? Will I have enough money to survive on after this is all done? In most cases, the tensions escalate before they deescalate, and there’s a...

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What does uncontested divorce mean?

On Wednesday, we discussed what a contested divorce means. We touched a little bit, too, on uncontested divorce – because it’s hard to understand one without the other. Contested refers to a divorce where the parties have not reached an agreement about how the assets and liabilities will be divided; in an uncontested divorce, on...

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I just need easy Virginia divorce paperwork!

I hear things like this all the time. “I just need an easy uncontested divorce,” or “I need my divorce paperwork filed.” Sometimes, it even takes on a sort of insulting tone, “I just need a paper pusher to finalize this divorce.” “There are no issues,” I’m assured. “It’s just an easy divorce.” Is there...

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Dividing Retirement Accounts in Divorce

One of the biggest assets that we divide in divorce are retirement accounts. Whether we’re talking about IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, pensions, stock options, TSPs, or any other type of account, if they were earned during the marriage, they’re marital property and subject to division in any action for divorce. Retirement is actually (usually!) an easy...

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