You are not required to have an attorney to obtain a divorce in North Carolina. A person who proceeds in a legal matter without a lawyer is referred to as being pro se (pronounced pro-say), meaning on one’s own. If your case involves children, alimony or spousal support, significant property, or debts, you should avoid proceeding on your own. Sometimes problems created early in a case by a pro se litigant are irreversible. Other times, mistakes made by people proceeding pro se can be corrected (to a degree), but at a much greater cost than if a good attorney had been hired much earlier in the case.
If you are considering proceeding without an attorney, at a minimum have an initial consultation with an attorney to discuss your rights and duties under the law. You may have certain rights or obligations about which you are unaware. Meeting with a lawyer can help you decide whether to proceed on your own.
It is imperative that you meet with an attorney before starting negotiations with your spouse. Without some legal knowledge or planning, your negotiations will be in the dark, without any perspective as to what would happen if you went to court. Before meeting with an attorney, you will not know how the law affects your situation nor will you understand your legal rights. Negotiations must be planned. You must know what your target settlement is, how negotiations will lead to your target settlement (as well as what techniques to use to obtain your target settlement), and what is your “bottom line” settlement offer. If you do not follow a well thought out negotiation plan based on your legal rights and the likely outcome if your case were to go to court, then you have little chance for an optimum (or even an acceptable) settlement. Offers made and deals suggested are very difficult to take back once they are spoken. It may be very difficult for a lawyer to rescue a poor negotiation, leading to an increased chance of having to have a full blown trial of all the issues.
Go to our “Where do I start?” page to get more information from a CTK family law attorney.