Part of the job of a divorce lawyer is to explain the divorce process to clients. Much of my time as a lawyer is spent explaining how family law courts work, why a paper needs to be filed, and the meaning of legal words in a court document. I always thought that there should be a book that would cover these kinds of issues, a kind of “roadmap” to divorce that I could recommend to my clients. However, none of the books that I found seemed adequate. Thus, I was thrilled to recently discover Quickie Divorce by Linda H. Connell.
Quickie Divorce should be recommended reading for everyone about to embark on a divorce. The first half of the book covers the divorce process from beginning to end. It explains what the requirements are for divorce, how property is usually divided, how spousal support (alimony) works and issues that you will face when divorcing with children. It also has a special section that covers emergency circumstances such as domestic abuse or parental kidnapping.
The second half of the book is filled with reference information. It contains a glossary, a list of resources and sample filled-in forms. Although at first this second half of the book might seem like “filler” it is actually just as useful as the first half of the book.
For example, the book’s glossary explains in simple language that a petition is “a document filed with a court to initiate a formal legal action.” It is clear from reading the glossary that the author took special care to explain complex legal words in a way that the average person can understand. I will be making use of the glossary next time a client asks me to explain difficult terminology.
Quickie Divorce is meant to be generic and offer information that can be used by anyone in the USA. It has been my experience that – regardless of how much effort an author puts into making a legal book generic enough for national publication – the authors of these “national” legal books usually end up focusing on the law of the state in which they practice. Thus, when reading Quickie Divorce I was surprised at how useful the book was for Illinois residents and Chicago residents in particular.
Conclusion: I highly recommend Quickie Divorce to anyone facing divorce in Chicago.
My favorite Chapter of the book is Chapter 5 (Know How and Where to Get Legal Help). This chapter tells you what steps to take to find the right lawyer. It also teaches you about your lawyer’s duties to you as well as your duties to your lawyer.
Lawyers have many duties toward their clients. These include:
- Keeping you informed,
- Abiding by your decisions,
- Keeping matters confidential,
- Moving your case along,
- Explaining the bills, and
- Courteous treatment.
According to Judge Duncan, your duties as a Client are:
- Tell the truth,
- Respond promptly to requests,
- Paying your bill, and
- Don’t be a pest.
Overall, this book offers lots of useful insight from an experienced judge on how best to solve the issues arising out of your divorce.
Conclusion: Although Judge Duncan is from California, I feel that this book is very useful for people seeking divorce in Chicago, Illinois.
One of the major problems that Judge Duncan has with divorce court is that it is adversarial in nature. He states:
Once divorce lawyers have taken a case into court, they are required to rely upon the historical underpinnings of the adversary system, and normally have little choice but to follow the same procedures as business and criminal lawyers in getting ready for their trials.
Judge Duncan also points out other harmful aspects of taking your divorce problems to court, such as: high costs, antagonism and angst, harm to children, long delays, overloaded calendars, wrong decisions, lying witnesses and disgruntled judges.
Judge Duncan recommends that you avoid these problems by talking things out with your spouse or using alternative dispute resolution methods such as mediation.
Tomorrow: My favorite chapter.
By Judge Roderic Duncan
Some people might expect a divorce book written by a judge to stress the importance of the judicial system in helping couples reach a just outcome in their divorce. If this is you, then you might be surprised at the advice offered by Judge Robert Duncan in this book.
Judge Duncan tells it like it is. He doesn’t aggrandize himself or the family law system to which he devoted most of his judicial career. For example, on dealing with divorce courts he states, he “saw over and over again that the system stinks.” Surprising stuff coming from a Judge!
Tomorrow: Why does the system stink?
Divorce can be an overwhelming experience. Fathers' Rights is about empowerment. It teaches you how you can control the divorce process in the way that is most beneficial to you (as opposed to handing the control over to your spouse, lawyer or judge).
Fathers' Rights is a great book written by someone who is not only an expert on family law but is also a caring and compassionate lawyer. Although the book is written with fathers in mind, its advice is equally useful for mothers.
Conclusion: I highly recommend the book to both fathers and mothers facing divorce.
See Part 2 of this review of Fathers' Rights…
See Part 1 of this review of Fathers' Rights…
Note: There is a book by the same title by Jeffrey Leving – I am NOT reviewing Leving’s book.
