Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: File a Legal Separation

You may file for legal separation or dissolution of marriage (divorce) in Washington, since you live here. Theoretically, you could do the same thing in California where your husband lives. A California licensed attorney would have to give you the ins and outs of that situation, but if you file here, you would file in the county in which you reside. The court would only have jurisdiction over the marriage and since you have no kids or shared assets, I think you'd be fine to do this here.

Also, unless there is a good reason, such as for religious purposes, I would not advise filing for legal separation. I would advise you go for the full divorce, and if by some miracle you get back together, you can always choose to remarry.

The filing fees are $250 and you have to either have a friend personally hand the initial summons and petition for dissolution to your husband. You may also pay for a local process server to do this, which usually runs bout $50 to have done.

To answer your question about "do I need an attorney?" there are two things you ought to know. First, the old adage that, "a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client" rings true each time. In your case, the expression is slightly altered to say, "the person who represents herself has a fool for an attorney." The point is that not even lawyers should represent themselves in court for the sole reason that they tend to make mistakes whether due to a lack of technical knowledge, as is likely to be the case with you, or because of emotional involvement that clouds one's ability to make reasoned decisions.

Second, if you had to have your appendix out and you could buy a kit with instructions, all the necessary surgical instruments, and could have it all for $49.99 versus paying $1,500 to have a doctor do it for you, would you still do it yourself? What about if you car needed a new engine and you could buy a kit with instructions to do it yourself at half the cost of a mechanic. Would you still do it yourself?

It's the same with a lawyer. All you do when you hire one to represent you is essentially buy some assurance that it will be done right the first time and although it requires more money up front than $49.99, you do it because in the long run, it is cheaper than screwing it up, losing time to figure out it's all screwed up and then spending more than $1,500 to have a lawyer first untangle your mess and then do the job as it should have been done in the first place.

So from a lawyer, if it were me, I'd hire a lawyer to represent me, just as I'd hire a plumber to fix my pipes, or a dentist to fill in my cavities, and a barber to cut my hair. I could probably do what I'm hiring them to do, but I'd miss a lot of work, probably get really frustrated along the way, and in the end when I've screwed it all up and have to call in a pro anyway, spend way more than I would have, if I had called a pro in the first place.