Filing for divorce jointly and without an attorney as a pro se litigant means that  the couple files for divorce jointly using one set of court documents and neither person hires an attorney to battle over their assets or children.  The word pro se means by yourself in Latin.

Filing for divorce jointly and pro se will enable your divorce to be more cooperative and amicable and, therefore, less stressful. Moreover, it will make your post-divorce life a bit more harmonious, which will be very helpful if you continue to share a child, relatives, friends, or business. Yes, several ChristieLegal clients continue to share a business post-divorce.

There are many reasons why folks who are divorcing would want to divorce jointly.

First, lawyering up automatically creates conflict. The divorce becomes a battle. When people are battling, they become less reasonable because they think and feel that they must defend themselves from attack. I help people reach agreements without advocating for either party. I tell you what the laws are, and, if necessary, then tell you ways in which you folks could handle your situation based on what I have seen happen. You folks make the decisions regarding how to handle the situation.

Second, lawyering up is HUGELY more expensive. I charge $150* to $200* per hour. Attorneys charge $275 to $550 per hour, and you’ll be paying for each of you to have your own lawyer. Therefore, it will cost you at least $550 per hour to handle a divorce and/or custody case, if you lawyer up. Plus, when folks lawyer up, the process will take at least 6 months longer and there will be tons of back and forth between you folks and your lawyers and the 2 lawyers, so the attorneys will have MANY more billable hours than working with ChristieLegal would have created. Therefore, you folks will be paying at least $400 more per hour for MANY more hours of legal work.

Lastly, divorcing jointly is MUCH quicker. It will take a few days to weeks for you to get on my caseload, depending upon the time of year. We will work together for a few days to a few months, depending upon how long it takes for you folks to reach agreements on all of the issues. I will write the divorce documents. You folks will sign them in front of a notary public, and then mail them to the court. Approximately 2 months later, you folks will have an online court hearing that will be 10 to 20 minutes in length at which the judge will ask you a few questions regarding the custody, parenting time, and/or child support. You’ll be divorced at the end of the hearing. For parties who don’t have joint minor kids, you won’t even have a court hearing!! A judge will read and then sign your documents in his/her chambers within 4 weeks of you mailing them.

Filing for divorce jointly and without an attorney / pro se is fairly simple.

1. Christie will tell you what the MN divorce and custody laws state.
2. Christie will help you reach an agreement on any issues that you haven’t reached an agreement on.
3. Christie will write the joint divorce and/or custody case court documents.
4. Christie will help you through the joint divorce or custody case court process – before and after the hearing.
5. If you don’t have joint minor children, then the judge will read and then sign your divorce documents in his/her chambers within 4 weeks of you mailing them.
6. If you have joint minor children, then you folks will have an online court hearing during which the judge will ask you a few questions regarding the custody, parenting time, and/or child support.
7. Within 1 week thereafter, you will receive a notice that your divorce case has been finalized by the court called Notice of Dissolution of Marriage. This is your proof to financial institutions and others that you are divorced and what the parties agreed to during the divorce process.

If you’d like to schedule an FREE initial consultation of 30 to 45 minutes with Christie of ChristieLegal, then please use ChristieLegal’s Calendly tool, https://calendly.com/ChristieLegalMN,    (please click on the line to go to Calendly’s website), OR email Christie your availability to meet during the next 5 days on Monday through Thursday from 8 am to 7 pm and Friday from 8 am to 6 pm at christie@christielegal.net. Please tell her if you need help with a divorce and/or custody case, how cooperative the parties are, and how long the parties have wanted to get divorced and/or handle the custody case. Thank you.

* ChristieLegal offers a 10% discount to her heroes – military members, EMTs, firefighters, law enforcement and corrections officers, teachers, mental health workers, and social workers, and veterans of those careers, and low- income folks.

Christie is alignable.com’s Woodbury Business Owner of the Year for 2023!