Nolo’s Essential Guide to Divorce
Review
This is an excellent resource with a consistently respectful tone; coupled with a guide like Nolo’s Essential Guide to Divorce, it will make readers feel better equipped to handle a tough decision. –Library Journal”Covers the before, during, and after of divorce, counseling readers on the types of divorces, how to make decisions about living arrangements and the division of property, and how custody decisions are made.” (Library Journal )”Explains what happens next in a divorce, including working with mediators or lawyers, figuring out alimony and child support, avoiding court battles, dividing money and property, addressing post-divorce issues and dealing with emergencies… ” (Reference & Research Book News )”The cost of this book is equivalent to about six minutes of an attorney’s time…. the author can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in legal fees…” (Hillary Hyde, MSW, www.gooddivorcebooks.com 20080508)
Review
The cost of this book is…
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The Nolo Press is a 35-year leader in self-help legal books. Anyone facing a divorce needs to obtain a copy of this reference guide immediately, regardless of whether the divorce will be amicable, grudingly co-operative, or combative. This book will take you through the legal process of divorce as well discussing the social, emotional, and financial processes. It is a thorough guide in plain language and you’ll want to keep a highlighter and some post-it flags handy for marking relevant passages.
Nolo recommends mediation before litigation if at all possible, to save money and effort. The authors remind the reader that lawyers do not have the consumer’s best interest at heart–their first priority is to protect themselves from malpractice lawsuits, and so they will be as thorough (and costly) as possible to meet that need. If both spouses read this book, it can provide an important wake-up call about saving as much money as possible for themselves and their children by pursuing divorce through mediation and co-operation. If your spouse is antagonistic, this book will tell you how to ensure that your best interests are covered when you hire a lawyer, and how to make the legal process work as smoothly as possible.
If you live in California and are fortunate enough to have an uncontested divorce, you can save thousands of dollars in legal fees by using the Nolo book and CD-ROM How to Do Your Own Divorce in California.
While going through a divorce can be difficult, this book shows that there are real, concrete ways to make it less so. The book is well organized. Written in plain English, it’s also easy to understand. It offers good tips and links to other valuable resources. The book provides important guidelines for managing finances, preparing and filing legal papers, dividing property and more. The author continually stresses the importance of taking the high road, which helps keep the flame low on a potentially volatile situation. When both parties are in respectful relationship to each other, she writes, it helps ease the process and make for a smoother transition after the divorce, which is especially important when there are children to consider.
Anyone faced with divorce needs to run, not walk, to Nolo’s Essential Guide to Divorce, an updated legal resource which covers everything from the process and working with mediators and lawyers to how alimony, child support, and division of money and property are calculated. Also learn how to avoid court battles and draft a marital settlement agreement on your own – and learn common post-divorce issues which threaten such arrangements – in a guide written by an attorney-mediator in private practice who surveys everything from religion to property division laws. Public libraries in particular must have this.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch