Mary then schedules and pays for another one-hour coaching session with me. I walk her through how to fill out the petition for divorce and other related documents. While Mary and I work through these documents on our respective computers, I walk her through the process of how and why we are filling out her papers in a certain way, answering her questions as we go.

For example, “What if my spouse does not agree with my date of separation?; Is the house his if he forced me to sign a quit-claim deed on the house?; is it true I need my spouse’s consent to ask for spousal support?” During this hour, I am also explaining and defining words used in family law because Mary needs to understand basic terminology as she navigates further into her divorce case, such as “community property,” “separate property,” and much more.

At the end of this second hour, she (or I) has filled out the initial divorce forms, or she has asked me to fill them out. If I fill them out, I’ll email them as a PDF.

Once she is ready to sign these documents, she calls my office for another paid consultation. I walk Mary through the steps of how to file the documents and then later serve documents on her spouse.

After her husband is served with divorce paperwork, we then discuss whether or not she wants to file for spousal support.

If yes,I will do some calculations on specialized software known as Dissomaster. Using this mandated software, I help Mary assess the likelihood of obtaining spousal support and provide an approximate amount. If my findings are favorable to Mary, she will then start with the next round of coaching. During the next round, I explain where the forms are; what the forms are; and how to fill the forms out. During this process, Mary is not only learning key legal terms, but she also is becoming more empowered with the process and less frightened. Mary’s confidence is growing.

When Mary has filed and served her paperwork for her request for spousal support, she might schedule another coaching session. The purpose of this session will be to help her understand and prepare for her upcoming hearing (such as what time to show up in court, how to check in with the bailiff, etc.).

In addition, I explain what to say to the judge – and if she asks because she is nervous, I even give her a script to type up to read. I also strategize with her, much like a football game, I help Mary understand the “opposition”, ensuring she is prepared–even if her spouse is represented by counsel at the support hearing

(Note: “the discovery process” is the most expensive part of a legal case. It can range from $3,000-$30,000 upward if a person hires an attorney for this process. At this point, Mary has spent hundreds, not thousands of dollars.)

Mary pays for another coaching session. After Mary’s hearing on spousal support, she will call me up and let me know how it went. She will say it was great, the judge granted her some support and she is ready to go on to the next step. In her next coaching session, I explain what is known as discovery. I will also explain to Mary that there are two types–mandatory discovery and discretionary discovery. I define the terms, the differences and tell her the forms she needs. I explain the forms in detail; review her draft documents; and answer entry questions she has. To start, Mary just wants assistance with just the mandatory forms for her divorce case (FL-140, FL-141, FL-142, FL-150).

At some point, Mary will receive her husband’s initial discovery (because it’s mandatory that they both complete this process, otherwise, she can’t get divorced). When Mary receives her husband’s documents, I assign her the homework of reviewing his paperwork to find anything that’s missing, weird, dishonest, etc.

During our review, we realize that the husband did not provide credit card statements. I then explain the various ways we can “force” her spouse to comply. Mary is surprised there are many options to enforce compliance–as he has told her many times he does not care what anybody tells him. He is not going to comply

Despite Mary’s best attempts, she has been unable to reach settlement between herself and her spouse on her own. Thus, Mary is ready to ask the court to set a trial date on her case. Mary decides she’s overwhelmed and doesn’t want to do the rest on her own, even though she had great success along the way. That’s the beauty of coaching through Unbundled Legal Services – since Mary did not spend much on attorney’s fees for the first 7 months of her case, she now has the funds to pay to hire me for her trial, which will be expensive. If we both agree, I will substitute into her case and become her attorney of record at the time of the trial.

Under different circumstances, Mary may decide to continue with coaching and then keep receiving coaching on “trial preparation”.

• A person is served with legal documents and they don’t understand them and/or what to do after receipt of the documents. (Examples: Petition for Dissolution of Marriage (FL-100), Request for Order (FL-300) (for support, custody, visitation, attorney’s fees and costs, etc.), Petition for Parentage (FL-200) , Petition for Domestic Violence Restraining Orders. (DV-100), Demand (or Request) for Production of Documents, Form or Specially-Prepared Interrogatories, etc.).
• A person wants to know their options in the event the other party (Respondent) fails to file a Response to the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage (form FL-120) after their time to legally respond has expired.
• A person prepared a draft of their family-law paperwork and they want a licensed attorney to answer their questions and review it for accuracy and completeness as well as get legal advice about their forms—which a “document preparer” is not legally allowed to do.
• A person received their judgment package “rejected” from the Clerk of the Court and they don’t know how to fix the problem.
• A person is calling outside the area (out of state, out of country) and they want to learn how to appear in court and/or how to prepare and file documents with the local courthouse—in preparation for their upcoming hearing date.
• A person feels “forced” to accept opposing counsel’s settlement proposal and they want to know their rights—and the law.
• A person wants to know if there is a way to procure official financial records from a third party when the other party refuses to produce their financial records-despite being asked many times for them (e.g., a bank records, credit-card statements)
• And so much more!

• A person wants to know the answer to “What the heck are financial disclosures?” and what they need to do in follow up.
•  A person asks, “My spouse just served me crappy and incomplete preliminary financial disclosures, what are my rights and my options?”
• A person asks “ How do I prove my spouse is hiding assets?”
• A person asks “my spouse says I have to leave our home because it’s their premarital house; do I have to leave? Can he call the police on me and have me arrested for refusing to leave?”
• A person asks “My spouse and I have already exchanged our disclosures and nothing is happening, what do I do next to get divorced?”
• A person asks “Are my spouse and I now divorced since we both filed our FL-100 and FL-120 and 6 months has now elapsed—she says ‘yes’ and I says ‘no’?”
• A person asks “What the heck is a ‘Mandatory Settlement Conference” and what do I need to do, if anything, to prepare?”
• A person wants to know if they can somehow rush “getting divorced” so that they can be remarried “because my divorce is taking way too long – it’s now going on years!”
• A person wants to know how a judge determines community-property rights to a small business that was technically opened before marriage (a few days before) but has been primarily run and managed during their 20+ year marriage.
• A person asks, “I just found out my spouse stopped paying my health insurance (or took me off his insurance plan with his employer)—what are my rights/options?”
• A person asks “What are “ATROS—my spouse just told me (or vice versa) that I violated the ATROS.”
• A person asks, “I left for work in the morning, and when I came home—the locks were changed. Does my spouse have the right to change the locks on our house without my prior knowledge or consent?”

• A spouse felt forced to sign an Interspousal Transfer Deed for a house purchased during marriage, and they want to know what their rights are, if any, in connection with this house.
• A person asks regarding a house that is in the other party’s name but purchased during marriage, “I just found out my spouse is in the process of selling our house! Can they do that? What are my rights to stop it!”
• A person wants to know if they have lost the separate property deposit to a house the parties purchased together during marriage.
• A person wants to know if they have any rights to a house that the other party purchased before marriage, but many of the monthly payments towards the principal were made during the marriage.
• A person wants to know their options if the parties can’t agree about how to resolve division of their home, e.g. “He wants to buy me out but I want to buy him out; or, “We can’t agree on the home’s value—we are ‘way off’ on our respective-appraised valuations; “I want the house sold and she wants to keep it for herself!”

• A person wants to know if they are legally entitled to any portion of the other party’s retirement accounts (and vice versa).
• A person wants to know how to ensure they get their portion of their spouse’s 401K after their divorce has been completed with the court.
• A person wants to know what a “QDRO” is and determine “next steps” to take, if any, regarding a QDRO.
• A person wants to know how premarital 401(k) “rollovers” to community retirement accounts are divided.

• Parents have a pending divorce case and one party wants to move, now, to another state, they want to know “what do I need to prove to a judge in order for the judge allow me to take our kids with me to the new state?”
• A person wants to know if the amount of proposed support, as calculated by DCSS (or opposing counsel), is correct-and whether or not they have a good chance of making an objection.
• A worried unmarried father wants to know his legal rights after having recently learning a woman is pregnant (“one night hook-up” versus long-term girlfriend).
• An unmarried pregnant woman wants to know whether or not she needs to file a motion to establish custody rights for herself.
• An unmarried mother to a young child wants to know how to file for child support against the father.
• An unmarried father has recently been told by the mom “you have no rights” and wants to know how to establish parentage of his child or get “rights”—so that he can share custody and visitation.
• A man denies he’s the father of a child and wants to know if he has any rights to challenge a request for child support from the Department of Child Support Services (DCSS).
• A parent is scheduled for “mandatory mediation” and they need assistance, to include understanding that this legal term means, what to expect and how to prepare.
• A parent is convinced the other parent is failing to disclose “all” their income to the Court in a child/spousal support case and they want to know how to prove the other parent has more income than what they are disclosing, e.g., how to prove the other parent is hiding income.
• A parent asks, “The other refuses to allow me to see our kids—what are my rights and legal options?”
• A parent feels they want to file an “emergency hearing” and they want to know if the facts in their case, in fact, constitute an “emergency.”
• A person says/asks, “I went to a hearing the other day and ‘minor’s counsel” was appointed for our kids. What is ‘minor’s counsel” and what does that mean for my case?
• A parent just received notice of an “ex parte” (emergency) hearing and they want to know what this means and how to prepare.
• A person asks, “In reading the other party’s (spouse/parent) Income & Expense Declaration (FL-150, I know they are lying about so much (e.g., income, expenses, etc.), how do I prove to the Court that they are lying?”
• And, so much more!

• A person wants to know what “discovery” is.
• A person wants to know what a “Demand for Production of Documents” is and what they need to do to respond; or,
• A person wants to know how to request documents from the other party, e.g., financial, employment, etc.
• A person wants to know what rights and options they have if the other party is not providing responses or documents to their discovery requests (e.g., Family Law Form Interrogatories, Specially-Prepared Interrogatories, Requests for Admissions, Demand for Production of Documents).
• A person wants to know how to “subpoena” records from a third party, e.g,. bank, credit-card company, HR department for employment records, etc.
• And so much more!