Tweet
I used to work with an attorney who was one of the editors of a self-help book for doing your own divorce. We had to keep a phone line dedicated just for assisting people who were using that book.
I cannot count how many questions we answered by simply opening up a copy of the book and reading the sentence with the answer in it to the person. Most of the time, the person would state that s/he had not read the book (it is really short and simple to read) and just wanted to fill out the forms and "file the stuff", so s/he wanted us to walk her/him through it on the phone. These types got really upset when we told them the book was designed for THEM to do that work and if they wanted someone to do it for them, they should hire an attorney.
One of the first instructions in the book regarding the forms was that the person needed to type the forms out rather than using the pages in the book, as the forms often had multiple paragraphs of options for what should be plead and the same options for what should be in the decree (like a paragraph stating there were no children by the marriage followed by one stating there were minor children followed by one stating all the children had reached the age of majority - choose one). The instructions also stated that the book's pages were printed on both sides, and Texas courts do not accept things for filing that are printed on front and back. At least three times a month someone would call to complain that the forms were useless since the person had just ripped them out of the book and tried to file them.
We did offer people a service of checking to see if they had filled out their forms properly. For us to do this, however, the person needed to fill out the forms as s/he thought they should be and then send them to us. So many people sent us blank forms ripped out of the book along with some information about themselves and their spouses and wanted us to create the document for them. We usually sent them a request for the attorney’s full retainer as a response.
I cannot count how many questions we answered by simply opening up a copy of the book and reading the sentence with the answer in it to the person. Most of the time, the person would state that s/he had not read the book (it is really short and simple to read) and just wanted to fill out the forms and "file the stuff", so s/he wanted us to walk her/him through it on the phone. These types got really upset when we told them the book was designed for THEM to do that work and if they wanted someone to do it for them, they should hire an attorney.
One of the first instructions in the book regarding the forms was that the person needed to type the forms out rather than using the pages in the book, as the forms often had multiple paragraphs of options for what should be plead and the same options for what should be in the decree (like a paragraph stating there were no children by the marriage followed by one stating there were minor children followed by one stating all the children had reached the age of majority - choose one). The instructions also stated that the book's pages were printed on both sides, and Texas courts do not accept things for filing that are printed on front and back. At least three times a month someone would call to complain that the forms were useless since the person had just ripped them out of the book and tried to file them.
We did offer people a service of checking to see if they had filled out their forms properly. For us to do this, however, the person needed to fill out the forms as s/he thought they should be and then send them to us. So many people sent us blank forms ripped out of the book along with some information about themselves and their spouses and wanted us to create the document for them. We usually sent them a request for the attorney’s full retainer as a response.
That's awesome. Coming soon to a town near you: divorce drive-thru.
I'm sorry
Comment