How We Work
The paralegal cannot provide legal advice. In the State of California, in order for a paralegal (us) to assist a member of the general public (you), they are required to be supervised by an attorney. A supervising attorney will represent you in a limited capacity for the sole purpose of providing legal advice and to supervise your document preparation, as well as final review of all documents to be submitted to the court.
The documents are completed in your name as a self-representing party and you would make any court appearances should that become necessary. The attorney's name does not appear on your documents. When you come in for your initial consultation with Family Law Paralegal Services, you will meet with one of our paralegals and very briefly with a Certified Family Law Specialist (family law attorney), who will answer your questions and listen to your concerns about your divorce, then offer you legal advice. The attorney instructs Family Law Paralegal Services how to proceed in your divorce, and we take it from there.
Family Law Paralegal Services will prepare all of your forms and attachments with your best interests in mind. An attorney will review all documents before they are filed with the court to ensure that the documents have been properly prepared. Your time with the attorney is minimal; the vast majority of your billable time is billed at our paralegal hourly rate of $85 per hour. Your brief initial consultation with the attorney and document review time is billed at $250 per hour by an attorney who is a certified family law specialist (a discounted rate compared to the standard San Diego attorney hourly rates of $300 - $450 per hour!).
At Family Law Paralegal Services, we do our best to keep your fees and costs down. We encourage email communications rather than telephone calls; we ask that you handle the service of your documents rather than using an expensive messenger service; we instruct you thoroughly in preparing first drafts of your disclosure documents; and we inform you if your divorce matter may need additional work.
