Divorce Support Forums: pre-marriage house handling, lawyer recommend?

Lawyer recommendations (or paralegal recommendations, therapist recommendations, etc) gotten through unknown people on a website won't help you. Find someone at work or in your neighborhood who has gone through a divorce and ask who they used. Ask if they liked thier lawyer or thier ex's lawyer better. Interview that one.

Interview at least 3. Don't take them if they give you what sounds like a slick sales pitch. They may have the systems in place to get their collections done and the paperwork filed, but a slick business person who knows how to handle contracts with a process server and copy center may not be the best person to think on their feet in court next to you. You want someone with balance between passionately able to talk to you, and slick businessperson. And unless you have a clue that your ex is out for blood, make sure you dont' get someoen who comes off as a shark or who promises you the world... you won't get the world.. your world is about to be split in half and anyone who promises otherwise is just trying to get your money... and a shark in a case that COULD have been amicable, will muck up the works and cost more in legal fees than necessary, JUST to run up the fees. Look for someone who talks about wanting to do it rhgit more than they talk about dirty tricks you can do to mess with the ex.

Do it now, find people who give a free consult so that you don't have to spend money while your'e interviewing them to decide if you want to use their services. You need someone on board right away becasue every state has time limitations on how long you're allowed to take to respond to the divorce request after it's been filed.

Don't let anyone scare you away from lawyers, though. HIring a paralegal or a paper filler-outer is just crazy. YOU can fill out your own papers, it's the person standing next to you in court that you NEED... it's the person who is allowed to give you LEGAL ADVICE about what your'e likely to get and what you're likely to lose that you NEED. And you DO need someone who will be honest about the fact that you're likely to lose some part of this. Everyone loses in a divorce. And anyone who doesn't think that's true has never been through it.

But even though I've said don't take recommendations from here (unless you get to knwo the people here and trust them, and know they're not just advertising for thier own services, which won't happen in your first post)... don't stop coming here. This place is a great place to get a second opinion when your lawyer suggests you do something... it's a great place to be able to figure out what your lawyer is thinking when he or she wants to do something and you're not completely understanding it.