Often times I see and hear of clients who decide to do their own divorce without the benefit of an attorney or a mediator. While I can certainly understand the desire to save money in these economically challenged times, the best advice I can give is DON’T DO IT.

Divorce is very complicated, both legally and financially. You can easily make mistakes, and often those mistakes are irreversible. There have been many times when I have been contacted by clients who made the mistake of being divorced without the aid of a mediator or attorney. They then have to come to me to try to undo the damage, but, unfortunately, most such mistakes are irreversible. The only scenario I can envision when a Do-It-Yourself divorce may make any possible sense, might be in a case where the marriage lasted only a year or two and there are no children, little or no assets/debts to be divided, comparable incomes and no alimony. In a case like that, a Do-It-Yourself divorce could be accomplished quite quickly and inexpensively. Nevertheless, I would still highly recommend that each party hire a mediator and have their own separate attorney review the final documents.