In family law forms circles, the old joke that it’s cheaper to keep your spouse than to divorce him or her still makes the rounds. It applies as much to the amount you will spend in lawyer’s fees for a divorce as to how much of “your” assets will be shared with your soon-to-be “Ex.”

Although most divorces will not be like The Donald and Ivana Trump divorce, the reality is that even a “simple” divorce can cost you quite a penny unless you’re willing to put some effort and use resources which courts have in place to help those who want to represent themselves–known as pro se parties.

Just about every state has forms available to help you get your divorce without having to hire a lawyer. Florida is no exception, and the Florida Supreme Court has provided forms for use in family law forms cases, including divorce. They have tried to be as straight forward as possible without using “legalese.” Still, many people find them cumbersome and extremely time-consuming.

Although the family law forms can be downloaded for free from flcourts.org, many Florida courts charge for these forms, sometimes as much as $50.00–not exactly an exorbitant fee were it not for the fee paid to the same court for filing a divorce in Florida, currently $364.00; and you still have to pay the sheriff’s fee for serving the spouse!. To make matters worse, some internet sites offer the same exact forms for around $7.00.

The end result is that the very people who are meant to be helped by the forms are usually driven to hire a lawyer, if only to save themselves time and aggravation in completing the forms.

All the things you would hire a lawyer for to assist you in your divorce case can be done by you, even the mediation part. Mediation is an alternative to a trial, and whether you have a lawyer or not, you will be required to go to mediation prior to a trial if you and your spouse do not agree on any issue—you don’t have to agree, but you do have to attend a mediation session. Like the rest of the nation, Florida courts have mediation units for use by all parties, represented or not.

But there’s more to divorce than just forms.

(c) Vivian Rodriguez

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