While Washington State does not require you to use the services of a Seattle family law attorney in a dissolution case, you must use specific forms, and you and your spouse must follow a case schedule issued by the court.
When you hire an attorney, he or she functions as an advocate for your interests during this difficult time. An attorney knows your legal rights, the process to follow, and which papers need to be filed.
At the moment, our firm is currently only able to offer services in English.
All interactions with our firm are protected under attorney-client confidentiality, including those with our non-attorney team members or if you are communicating for the first time via our online contact form. Each attorney works closely with one of our paralegals, Sarah or Arianne, on each case they undertake. Clients may also find themselves interacting with Alyssa, our Office Manager, or Milo, our Legal Assistant.
Seattle Divorce Services represents clients in the Washington State Superior Courts. Our attorneys practice exclusively in King county, unless a person’s matter is uncontested or collaborative, in which case we can most likely assist them regardless of the Washington county they reside in.
At the moment, the only flat-fee service our firm offers is the initial consultation. All further casework, once hired, will be billed hourly.
Due to ethical guidelines which determine conflicts of interest for both attorneys and firms, only one spouse/person/party can be represented by an attorney from our firm. Clients are welcome to inquire whether we can offer the other party referrals to attorneys in the area. If two people are pursuing mediation, an attorney serves as a neutral third party for both spouses/parties. Once we are providing a couple with mediation services, neither spouse can then hire an attorney at our firm for their representation (or vise versa).
If you and your spouse find this information discouraging, as you wished to share a lawyer to save on costs or to have a more collaborative legal matter, then I encourage you to look into the Collaborative family law method for your pre-nup or divorce.
The state of Washington has a mandatory 90-day waiting period between the start of a divorce and the time when it can be finalized in order to give the parties a chance to change their minds. The divorce is considered final when the court signs the Decree of Dissolution.
If the parties are able to reach an agreement on all issues, the divorce may be finalized as soon after the 90-day waiting period as they are able to present the final orders to the court. If they are not able to reach an agreement within the 90 days, they will need to wait until they have reached an agreement or have gone through a trial.
If the parties need a trial, the wait time varies from county to county, but a wait of a year is not uncommon. In some counties, a trial date is assigned when the case is filed; in other counties, it is not assigned until the court is requested to do so.
If you cannot afford to hire an attorney to represent you, you may still be able to afford to have an attorney assist you in representing yourself.
This allows you to purchase just the help you can afford. This may consist of drafting the necessary legal documents for you, explaining the legal system and the steps you will need to take, advising you on arguing your case, explaining how to get your papers served on the other party, or performing legal research for you.
You can also hire an attorney to represent you for a single part of your case. This is called a “limited appearance.” You might, for instance, hire an attorney just to appear at a single hearing to help explain your case to the court.
In King County, you can get the names of attorneys offering these services by calling the King County Bar Association Lawyer Referral line at 206-267-7010.
Yes, this is what is considered pro se support, a service which our attorneys often provide. This route allows you to have an attorney to contact for as-needed legal advice and meetings, without fully hiring them to represent you. Though many people take this route to save on costs, there are many potential drawbacks to be aware of and situations in which proceeding pro se may not be in your best interest. This determination is difficult to make if you are not a family law attorney, and can be well addressed in an initial consultation with a member of our firm. Our page on Uncontested Divorce, under the header “Do I need a lawyer for an uncontested divorce?”, illustrates some of the consequences of choosing the pro se route.
When a matter is contested, this means that the parties involved are disagreeing over certain aspects of the issue at hand. In family law, this means the matter will likely be litigious, meaning its resolution will need to be overseen by a judge and disputes resolved via the courts.
A divorce is a legal termination of all aspects of your marriage. In a legal separation, you remain technically married but are no longer a couple or “community” going forward. People often choose to file for legal separation for religious reasons and sometimes to preserve things like health insurance benefits or perhaps create a more stable environment for their children. Generally, in a legal separation the court will enter final orders similar to a divorce, including a parenting plan, support orders, and a division of your marital property. Our Seattle divorce lawyer can discuss these options in greater detail with you.