Many of my former divorce clients during their case while in an office meeting, court hearing or a mediation session during my 21 years of practicing Minnesota family law leaned back in their chair and said, “I never thought this would happen to me”. This being a divorce. The pain on their faces was real and raw. It was painful for me to experience not only as a divorce attorney but as a human being because they were experiencing one of life’s traumatic life-changing events with an outcome that would take many months or years to try to recover and move on from.
Those clients had the benefit of being able to hire me to represent them throughout their case. Not everyone in a divorce is financially able to hire a family law attorney. Some feel they can represent themselves or want to at least try to do so before obtaining legal advice.
I created DIYdivorce’s video for people who may be or are going to be going through a divorce to provide a base of knowledge to work from especially if they cannot or do not want to hire an attorney. Stories from friends and family or co-workers about their own divorce or the divorce that their best friend went through a few years ago, while interesting perhaps to hear, are not a substitute for legal advice and information. It just isn’t. Every divorce is completely different from the other. Separating the information these folks share from needing the best information possible to proceed with one’s own divorce can create a more fluid divorce process and allow for a well thought out mutual agreement or outcome to best protect one’s legal interests.
I feel the DIYdivorce video is a resource for those who are in the real and raw state of an impending or actual divorce. “Winging it” through a divorce means mistakes that likely cannot be corrected when the divorce is final. The information in the video helps eliminate or reduce the trauma of a divorce because it separates out the emotions one is experiencing and provides 3 ½ hours of legal know-how in dividing debts and assets, navigating custody and parenting time information about what to expect during a divorce court case.