Seattle Divorce Services represents clients in the Washington State Superior Courts, specifically in King county (though, we handle uncontested and collaborative matters all over the state).

While there are certain aspects of divorce law that are determined by the state and are, therefore, widespread, litigious cases inherently entail the parties and attorneys interacting with the county courts to resolve their disputes. In which case, one of the attorney’s central roles will be to offer the client legal advice based on their existing knowledge of how the court views, responds to, and processes certain information or situations. Our attorneys’ knowledge of such is confined to the King County courts.

At the moment, the only flat-fee service our firm offers is the initial consultation. All further casework, once hired, will be billed hourly.

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.

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 find this information discouraging, as you and the other party were hoping to share a lawyer to save on costs or that it would allow for a more collaborative legal discourse, then we encourage you to look into the Collaborative family law method for your pre-nuptial agreement or divorce.

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.