Divorce Lawyer Edmonton | Great Reasons to Hire A Lawyer
While many people believe they must hire a lawyer in order to become successfully divorced, this is not true at all. Regular citizens can file paperwork within the court system to apply for a divorce, appear on their own behalf in front of the judge and become successful in obtaining a divorce. However, that isn’t always the best use of your time, and while divorces are absolutely stressful, trying to do it all yourself are even more stressful. Get expert help, not only to minimize stress, but to ensure things are done correctly the first time.
One of the first reasons why you should hire a lawyer in Edmonton like eLaw Alliance should when getting divorced, is because they will be able to make all court appearances for you. People may not realize how many times they will have to appear in court during the course of their divorce. First, they need to go to the actual courthouse to file divorce application paperwork. And while that doesn’t sound like much trouble, it’s still taking time off work, paying for parking and going out of your way. While a lawyer will be able to do this on your behalf, without you having to do a thing.
Filing Paperwork in Court
Then after you file paperwork, you will be responsible for serving your spouse with divorce paperwork. Yes, you can get someone else to serve them, however it will be your responsibility to find them, and ensure that they will sign an affidavit swearing they have served the correct person properly. Again, if you had hired a divorce lawyer Edmonton, they would ensure your spouse gets served, often without your knowledge, to help minimize any stress it, or its knowledge could cause.
After the paperwork has been filed and your spouse has been served, you will get a court date. This court date will usually ask you to arrive at court in the morning, or in the afternoon, no more specific time than that, says divorce lawyer Edmonton. You will sit in a room with dozens of others, waiting to have their case heard by the judge. You may be sitting there for a few minutes before your docket is called, or you may be waiting hours.
This will again, require you to take time off work, just to sit in the court room. If you are late, and the judge called your docket in your absence, the judge may have ruled on it in your absence, or thrown it out of court, requiring you to start from the beginning and file again. This is unnecessary time and stress that you can avoid, simply by hiring the right experts. And this is just the first of many court appearances.
Divorce Lawyer Edmonton | Represent Yourself in Court
The first court appearance is to determine if your case should be considered in court at all. You will be required to bring your own paperwork, and speak clearly and intelligently to the judge as to why your case should be heard. Even well spoken individuals who don’t have a problem with public speaking, often get tongue tied during court.
It’s a formal affair, the judge may be intimidating simply by being a judge, and your emotions are usually all over the place – most people don’t actually want to get a divorce, it’s often a last resort. Therefore, it can be hard to speak in court.
If you are trying to obtain a divorce yourself, it is up to you to prepare your own separation agreement. This is a document showing the result of all the negotiations you and your spouse had to obtain the separation agreement. In Alberta, spouses must be separated for a year before a divorce will be granted. This doesn’t mean that a spouse must wait to have been separated for one year before filing for divorce. They can start the divorce any time, but the judge will require the couple to have been separated for a year by the time they will sign off on the divorce.
Divorces Can Take a Long Time
Again, hiring your own divorce lawyer Edmonton ensures that your lawyer will take care of this on your behalf, saving you stress from having to do this on your own. Divorces, when they progress smoothly typically take 6 to 8 months, however in emergency circumstances, a fast divorce can be obtained. And when there are underage children in the family, the divorce is likely to take longer, up to or over a year.
Part of the reason divorces take so long, is that the courts must get confirmation that there are no prior divorce applications that need to be processed first. They get this confirmation from the National Divorce Registry. Rather than dealing with that stress on their own for that long, hiring the right lawyer – such as the experts at eLaw Alliance can help do all the difficult steps for you. This allows you to focus on your life and your family, healing and moving on.
They will also be the best source of information along the way. They can answer your questions about completing the mandatory Parenting After Separation course that parents must take before they can become legally divorced. Child support calculations and questions can be handled by your divorce lawyer Edmonton. While it is absolutely possible to get divorced without hiring a lawyer, why would you want to?
Get caring, objective experts on your side, who will help this difficult life transition compassionately and with expertise. Call eLaw Alliance today for your free one hour consultation.