Family Law court should be accessible to everyone.

That’s it. It’s just that simple. That’s why we are here.

We don’t believe that people should be trapped in a marriage, just because they can’t afford an expensive divorce attorney. We have made it our mission to offer affordable, outstanding family law services for our Maricopa County clients.

It may be hard to believe, but our clients pay our firm about 1/10th as much as they would spend for an Arizona-based attorney to do the same thing. If you are in agreement, we’ll even make every trip to court for both of you. You won’t see a judge, pay for parking, or stand in line!

The biggest difference is that Family Law Attorneys charge by the hour. First, they will take a retainer. A retainer is a fancy word for “deposit.” In Phoenix, the average retainer for a family attorney is $3,000.

What many people do not understand is that the retainer gets burned up very quickly. Most attorneys charge between $300 – $400 per hour, and 10 hours can easily get burned up before your first court date!

With Affordable Family Law, you will never be “surprised” by the legal fees. We will tell you exactly how much everything costs from the very beginning. We might spend 10 hours on your case, or we might spend 15 hours– but our flat-fee will remain the same.

We don’t want our family law clients to do much of anything. We don’t want you to go to court, or see the judge, or pay for parking.

When you hire Affordable Family Law, we do as much as we can to keep you out of the courtroom. If the two of you can come to an agreement, you will simply tell us your agreement; and then sign the divorce papers.

We will make all four trips to court for you!

If you are not divorcing by agreement, we’ll make the first 3 trips to court, and you will most likely finish the divorce during mediation. Mediation can be done over the telephone.

Typically, if spouses are divorcing amicably (uncontested divorce), they are able to reach agreements among themselves and don’t need any assistance with a lawyer.

This is where a legal document preparer comes in. Generally, the most cost-effective method to obtain an Arizona divorce without doing it yourself, is to hire a legal document preparer for a mere fraction of the cost involved with hiring an attorney.

In Arizona, a legal document preparer must be certified by the State in order to prepare legal documents without the guidance of a licensed attorney. To be certified, the legal document preparer must have the necessary skills, knowledge base and years of experience to pass the certification exam. They must then meet the requirements of a stringent application process in order to ensure they do not have a criminal record and will act ethically. Legal document preparers are not attorneys and cannot ethically offer any type of legal advice.

A quality Arizona legal document preparation company will gather information from you, inform you of your available options and then, based on the options you select, prepare the necessary divorce forms on your behalf. Many times, legal document preparers will also offer services for filing your paperwork with the Court and process service of your spouse. Make sure to determine what services are included before engaging a legal document preparer. Keep in mind that this route is likely your most affordable and time efficient option for an Arizona divorce.

Having someone with experience and knowledge guide you through the process in an efficient and inexpensive manner can be an invaluable asset during a stressful and emotionally difficult period in your life- even if you are lucky enough to have an uncontested divorce.

I have a complicated custody case. Can you help me?

Absolutely! It does not matter how complex your case is– we are qualified to prepare all of the necessary paperwork, and we do it well.

In some very rare cases, you may choose to hire a lawyer before trial (if your case goes that far). But if you hire us to help you prepare the initial divorce petition; have your spouse served; and prepare you for mediation– you will save many thousands of dollars.

It’s very rare that cases move past mediation, but if you go all the way to trial– we can either prepare you for trial, or you can hire a lawyer. Even if you have the money for a lawyer, frugal people often won’t hire a lawyer until they have an actual court date. (That’s because most cases settle in mediation.)

But no matter what your financial situation is, Affordable Family Law can make divorce a lot less expensive.