DIY Divorce

• Author: Danielle Braff
• Pages: 31-33

JULY-AUGUST 2019 ABA JOURNAL || 31

Business of Law

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SARA WADFORD/SHUTTERSTOCK

Apps and services promising

to make divorce easier

and cheaper have grown

in popularity—but do they deliver?

By Danielle Bra

Technology

EDITED BY VICTOR LI / VICTOR.LI@AMERICANBAR.ORG

DIY

DIVORCE

was processed ,” she says. “I wish I had use d Hello Divorce

sooner.”

Divorces can dr ag on for months if not years—and the

attorney fees ra ck up quickly. So it’s no surprise that auto-

mated, DIY and fl at-fee divorce services have poppe d up in

recent years. Compan ies including Divorceify , Hello Divorce

and Wevorce purpor t to simplify the process by using tec h to

automate document production; prov iding resources for cus-

todial issues , fi nancial planning and housing; and o ering

counseling a nd hand-holding.

“As technology progresse s, more and more companies

are providing consu mers with do-it-yourself options when

it comes to things like d ivorces, estate planning or busine ss

formation,” says Marie Oates , a partner at The Hive Law

in Atlanta . “With this, people are able to opt out of paying

attorney fees and b e more in control.”

For example, Hello Divorce was launched i n 2017 as part

of a law fi rm, and it o ered instructional v ideos, DIY tem-

plates, legal coac hing and paralegal help . In 2019, Hello

Parvin L illey, a caregiver for seniors in Concord, Cal i-

fornia, trie d to fi le her own papers for her divorce twice.

She was rejected—tw ice.

Lacking the money to h ire a divorce attorney, Lilley

didn’t think she had any opt ions remaining. Then she dis-

covered Hello Divorce , an online platform for divorc e in

California w ith fl at fees, such as $500 per month to prepare

and fi le forms. “Af ter just one round of going through their

questions and following the D ivorce Navigator, my divorce