Do you even need a lawyer?

For certain cases you don’t have to have a lawyer.

If you are seeking a divorce, a kinship guardianship, a name change, dealing with landlord-tenant issues or custody cases, there are forms available for you. These are just a few of the types of cases that are ready for download online.

The New Mexico Supreme Court has developed fill-in-the-blank forms which can be used by people representing themselves. In fact, many of the forms are online on the New Mexico courts website and can easily be downloaded for use. You can also find these forms in some places like libraries and district court clerk offices.

Many of these forms come with instructions for use and give you some hints and tips in getting them filled out. Sounds easy enough, right?

Here’s the kicker. If you use these forms, you must be prepared to represent yourself in your case. You are fully responsible for filling in the forms completely and correctly. You are responsible for getting the right forms to the right places—the court clerk, the opposing party, the judge’s office—and you are responsible for representing yourself in court.

When you represent yourself, the judges expect you to be held to the same standard as if you were a lawyer.

You have the responsibility to present your case and argue the law correctly. Sometimes it’s easy to fill in the forms but then hard to figure out what to say when court time comes.

What’s your option? Well, you can hire a lawyer. The lawyer will do everything for you. Draft your documents, file your papers and argue your court case. You will probably have to pay that lawyer an hourly fee of $200 to $400, depending on your case, where you are located and who you hire. Many lawyers will request money up front and you are looking at $3000-$10,000 up front, again, depending on your case, where you are located and who you hire. All of these amounts are estimates and could be more or less depending on circumstances, but you get the picture.

So, what happens if you feel like you have a pretty easy case and you think you can fill out the forms, but you wish you had a lawyer to just look things over and make sure you are headed in the right direction?

Well, you visit Legalfy It! At Legalfy It, we have made it easy and convenient for you to represent yourself with confidence and get on with your life.

Here’s how it works. Choose your type of case, choose your option (just the forms, attorney review with 30-minute consultation, attorney review with 2-hour consultation, or just hire an attorney), then answer the questions and schedule your consultation.

1. If you choose “Just the Forms,” you will be directed to the NM courts website, where you can download the forms to fill in the blanks yourself.
2. If you choose “Short and Sweet,” you will be asked a series of questions and Legalfy It will prepare your forms using the answers you provide to the questions. You will then be invited to schedule a consultation for up to 30-minutes with a lawyer. Before the consultation, the lawyer will review your questions and answers, review the forms and be prepared to discuss any questions that you have during the consultation. The lawyer will also look for red flags to alert you so that you can be prepared to represent yourself in the rest of the case.
3. “Some Extra Help” is just like it sounds—that option gives you up to 2 hours of consultation with a lawyer.
4. Finally, if you look at all the options and you think about it and decide that hiring a lawyer would be the best option, then you can schedule an appointment online and talk about your options using the traditional approach.

Legalfy It gives you the best of both worlds when you have an uncontested or relatively simple case. You retain the freedom of representing yourself but enjoy the confidence of having an attorney review your work.