The Divorce Industry Costs Americans $28 Billion Dollars A Year

“Many married couples believe that with a ‘top-gun divorce litigator’ they will safeguard their legal rights to children, property and sometimes alimony. And when both, the husband AND the wife feel this way, the clear winners will be their respective lawyers,” says Vivian Rodriguez, a Florida attorney with over 18 years of experience who advocates for couples to become as informed as possible prior to seeing a lawyer or going into court alone. “People don’t realize that at hourly rates of, for example, $250 an hour and above, their ‘top-gun divorce litigator’ is charging over $4.00 a minute to speak with them or the other lawyer, read and write letters, or prepare court documents, and the like.” It is no wonder that another industry has formed around attorneys, the legal forms preparer. Many state courts have prepared forms for used by married couples wishing to represent themselves in a divorce. “This is not any better but is actually worse because now you have people who may have no legal training preparing form documents that will impact emotionally and financially the lives of married couples. People will sign them without understanding the consequences in their particular case,” observed Ms. Rodriguez.

After a varied law practice which included litigated divorces, Vivian Rodriguez has switched professional gears from litigator to legal adviser. She advocates for married couples to seek as much information as possible on their own prior to hiring an attorney, making use of alternative dispute methods such as mediation to negotiate between themselves and do their own divorces. She represents clients who have done some homework and have educated themselves enough to realize that a litigated divorce will not only be costly and emotionally draining to them and their children, but will most likely not result in the outcome they want. She limits her practice to Florida with such services as:

• Legal consultations, including telephone consultations
• Representation of one party in the preparation of marital agreements negotiated by the client directly with the spouse
• Review of mediated agreements
• Preparation of documents for simple or uncontested divorces
• Calculation of child support under the Florida child support guidelines

Ms. Rodriguez has compiled a free report outlining the divorce process and basic information regarding divorce law in the State of Florida for Floridians considering a divorce to begin gathering information. To obtain more information pease visit www.viviancrodriguez.com .