Florida Pro-Se E-File Divorce Process Review

No More Paper FL Divorce!

Woo Hoo!!! After a year of allowing attorneys to e-file their cases, Florida courts are now allowing pro-se filers file their divorces online. 

This is amazing right?

I mean, no more trips to the court, waiting standing up on a line full of angry people, hoping and praying that you have all the documents you need to be divorced, that you signed all the pages, that the notary did not screw up and signed where they are supposed to, that the dates the papers were signed are ok, and so many other worries going through your head as you hear the horror stories others are freely sharing.

Getting a divorce in Florida without an attorney no longer requires you to go to court and stand online...however, all the other worries still exist. You will still need to have all the correct forms. Signed and notarized in the right pages. And you also need to have an idea of how to create and upload the forms in the e-file system. For example if you need to file a parenting class online and received your certificate in an email you will need to rotate the file before uploading it to the Florida court e-filing system. 

I have personally filed more than 50 cases in the first month the system was up and running and I can tell you that it took me e-filing my first 5 cases before I knew what the heck I was doing. I honestly don't see regular pro-se (without an attorney) filers being able to do this without assistance from someone that is familiar with the system and Florida divorce process.

The Pros Are:

1 - More convenient filing of divorce and civil cases

The Cons Are:

1 - There is no tutorial on what papers you need for filing

2 - There is a tutorial on how to file a case which is 20 minutes long and useless if you are only doing 1 case, for that go to the courthouse and make the line to file.

3 - If the forms are not correct or missing information you don't know that until some time has passed and your file is placed on hold status. Some errors or omissions are not caught until the file has made it to the judge and you are at the hearing, possibly delaying the case for moths.

I love innovation and anything giving pro-se filers access to the same tools that attorneys have at their disposal gets my thumbs up. This system as I see it can be the ultimate tool for the tech savvy Florida legal document preparer that can now help their clients file their cases online and get a case number much faster without stepping into the courthouse.

Article written by:

Yamil Francisco

Divorce Consultant 

Apex Legal Document Preparation Services, Inc.

http://www.apexlegalsolutions.info