I noticed recently that one of the most common Google searches in the divorce realm is for online separation agreements. Most divorce attorneys don’t need Google to tell them that many clients are looking for faster and cheaper ways to get through the divorce process. They answer calls and emails every day telling them as much.
Online separation agreements are a seemingly obvious way to get what you need without the time and expenses of an attorney. Why pay a lawyer to write words on paper when the internet will give it to you for very little cost or even free?
Well, it turns out there are some good reasons. The online agreement forms that I have seen and have reviewed for clients typically have many holes, and frequently include terms that would not be advised by an attorney. They suffer from both over and under inclusion.
Here are three of the more common and problematic issues that I see:
- Life insurance: Many if not all of the online forms I have seen leave out any mention of life insurance. Life insurance terms are commonly used in North Carolina to secure long term payments of child custody and spousal support. These missing terms leave spouses receiving support payments vulnerable.
- Filing or recordation of the Separation Agreement: Many online agreements include language that contemplates the agreement being filed with the court or recorded with a register of deeds. However, at least in North Carolina, filing an agreement with the court and/or recording it has serious consequences that clients don’t foresee and don’t realize will have serious implications in their case. It might be appropriate in a case, but that needs to be discussed with an attorney to make sure you are making an educated decision about this issue.
- Approval by Court: Similar to the filing of an agreement issue, many of these online agreement forms contemplate a court needing to approve or review the agreement. North Carolina law is different than many other states in this regard and many online forms do not track North Carolina law.
- Overly general language: There are some issues under North Carolina law where very specific language is required. These online forms rarely focus on individual state law and therefore frequently omit the more particular language.
These issues do not necessarily make online forms unusable or worthless. These forms can be useful to help people identify many of the issues and details that they will need to figure out to reach a comprehensive separation agreement. They often serve as a useful guide for the initial framework for couples that want to begin the conversation at the kitchen table. And productive conversations between divorcing spouses are the very best way to save money with attorneys; the more clients can figure out on their own, the less they pay attorneys to figure out for them.
However, the holes and problems with many online forms make them risky for use without review by an attorney to identify and fix the problems before they are formalized.
