Want a flat fee divorce in Illinois? There’s a couple things you need to know.
Many Illinois divorce lawyers who bill by the hour may charge more than $250. And people getting divorced may feel like lawyers bill for too many hours – leading a divorce that is not affordable at all. So the solution is a flat fee divorce – and they can be fast, and affordable.
What is a flat-fee divorce?
A flat-fee divorce is one where a lawyer charges a fixed, flat-fee. Compare the two ways an Illinois lawyer might charge for a divorce:
- Hourly: The lawyer will bill at a set hourly rate for all work. That includes gathering information, drafting documents, answering questions, going to court, filing the case, and more.
- Flat-fee: The lawyer will bill one flat-rate for certain services, such as an uncontested divorce in Lake County, Illinois.
What does the flat-fee cover?
Most people understand that lawyer is not going to do an unlimited amount of work for a flat fee. Therefore, it is useful to understand what is included in the flat fee.
The best way to understand what is included in a flat-fee divorce is to review the Lake County divorce lawyer’s retainer agreement. Most commonly, an Illinois divorce for a flat fee will include the following:
- Gathering information
- Drafting documents
- Limited counseling
- Filing the case
- Going to court with the client to finalize the case
Are there different flat-fees?
As a flat-fee divorce lawyer in Lake County, I do offer different flat fees for different cases. It’s a fact that some divorces are more complicated than others. For instances, if two spouses are 25 years old with no kids and no real estate, their divorce will likely be much more simple than two forty-somethings that have kids, own a business, and need to divide retirement accounts.
Below are some topics that usually require special attention and can marginally increase the cost of an uncontested divorce in Illinois:
- Real estate
- Kids
- Dividing retirement plans
- Business ownership
If your divorce involves any of those topics, don’t worry – getting an uncontested divorce in Illinois will still probably be cheaper than paying a lawyer by the hour.
What if I just need my paperwork reviewed by a lawyer?
I handle dozens of uncontested divorces each year. Filing and completing a divorce in the Lake County Circuit Court in Waukegan can be fairly simple.And every one in a while someone calls me and tells me something like this: “I don’t need a lawyer because we don’t have anything, and we worked everything out. I just need someone to review my paperwork to make sure it’s correct.”
But every one in a while someone calls me and tells me something like this: “I don’t need a lawyer because we don’t have anything, and we worked everything out. I just need someone to review my paperwork to make sure it’s correct.”
When that happens, the following facts are almost always present:
- Divorce website used: The person used an online divorce document preparation service like DivorceWriter, 3stepdivorce, and InstantOnlineDivorce. Paperwork produced by such websites is almost always garbage, and blatantly incomplete. See this article I wrote about the topic.
- Misunderstanding of the law: When people attempt to do their own paperwork, they often misunderstand the law. For example, people think that property is already “separated” if only one person’s name is on it. But even so, if the property was acquired during the marriage, it is most likely still marital property.
- Missing forms: There are certain forms the the Court needs to finalize a divorce. The scam online divorce websites claim they guarantee their documents will be accepted by the court, but they do not guarantee you will get divorced by only using their documents. Very frequently I see people trying to get divorced on their own, and getting sent home by the court.
How do I start a flat-fee divorce in Lake County?
If you want to start a flat fee divorce in Lake County, you can contact me here. Getting started is pretty easy. If you want to know a bit more about uncontested divorce in Lake County, Illinois, then check out this article.