Do-It-Yourself Divorce

Are you considering a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Divorce?  

If your situation is uncomplicated, you may decide that the best plan of action is to fill-in all of the forms you need for your divorce and file them at your local courthouse on your own. You can find the forms on line and if yours is a simple case this process might work well for you.  However, a DIY Divorce is not for everyone!!

Recently, I met a couple who was planning on a DIY Divorce. They figured it would be easy as they had agreed to all the details and knew how things would be divided. In passing they mentioned that the husband is collecting a federal pension that included a spousal annuity that the wife would receive when the husband died. They figured this was no big deal as it was all arranged years ago. Not true!! Divorce changes things. I knew they needed something called a Court Order Acceptable For Processing (COAP).  This complicated document is typically prepared by an attorney or accountant who specializes in this area of the law. And their Marital Settlement Agreement also needed to accurately reflect this. They would not have known this on their own and she might not have been able to collect after his death, even though this was their intention.

If you are considering a DIY divorce, please talk to one of our mediators FIRST.  We have offices in Boca Raton, Bradenton, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Gainesville, Lake City, Melbourne, Miami, Naples, New Port Richey, Clearwater, Orange Park, Jacksonville, Sarasota, Tallahassee, Tampa, and Winter Haven.