Do-it-yourself divorce in Vermont
State-mandated course enables nearly 70 percent of divorcing
couples to untie the knot without a lawyer.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
MONTPELIER, Vt. - A majority of Vermonters who divorce do so
without hiring an attorney.
Instead, they take a class on how to represent themselves.
The court-mandated session is for people who have filed for
divorce and opted not to hire a lawyer. Nearly 70 percent of
Vermonters are divorced without an attorney, according to
statistics from the Court Administrator's Office.
Some are put off by the cost of a hiring a divorce lawyer, which
starts at about $1,500. Others just want to be in control of the
process.
"There's not a lot of low-cost counsel available. If you've got
limited resources and you think you can do it, and the court does
help, then maybe this is the one thing that you forego in order to
pay for something else," said Sally Fox, a former state
representative who helped write the legislation to establish Family
Courts and who used to be the state director of Family Court
operations.
There are also risks to going it alone.
Many of the decisions that are made in front of a judge cannot
be reversed later.
The state established a Family Court system in 1990. A separate
court system would bring divorce and child custody cases onto the
same docket as juvenile cases. The goal was to more quickly resolve
cases that had to do with children, Fox said.
"Because it's a place where the needs of children will be
paramount, we want it to be a place where you can get these cases
resolved quickly," Fox said.
Family Court was set up as a user-friendly place and continues
to add programs to streamline the process.
Although the court wasn't necessarily established to allow the
majority of Vermonters to represent themselves in a divorce, that
has been the effect.
Tom Garrett, executive director of Legal Services Law Line of
Vermont, said he worries most about people who have reading
problems, disabilities or who are so traumatized by the divorce
itself that they lack judgment in making decisions. Those people
could benefit from a lawyer if they can afford one, he said.
"If people are relatively sophisticated, relatively literate and
have cool judgment so they can express themselves well and listen
well, they can probably handle this themselves," he said.