Customer Reviews

Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

The latest edition of Nolo's divorce guide is full of relevant, useful and relevant information in the unfortunate event one finds themself going through a divorce. Not only is the information practical, but one of the hallmarks of any Nolo publication -- and this book is no exception -- is that all the information provided is accurate.

While divorce law can be very complex, Nolo makes it for the most part easy to understand and, should you find your divorce to be of the very simple variety, you can probably do it yourself and save a lot of money just by using this book. If you go engage the services of an attorney, reading this book will give you the knowledge you need to not only understand your lawyer, but enable you to ask meaningful and relevant questions about the divorce process as it relates to your personal case and to participate fully.

This book is what I expected from Nolo: good, concise information about divorce without delving into a ton of detail about any one topic. I would give it four and half stars if that was possible. My only criticism was that I found that it fell short when it comes to the particular requirements of certain states. I am a California resident, and I simply needed more information about community property law and how the process works here. Having said that, Emily Doskow is a very good writer, and she makes it all quite digestible.

As I noted in another book review, if I had to pick two books for California residents to read, this would be one of them. The other book would be Divorce for Grownups: A Comprehensive Guide to Divorce in California by David Magnuson. While Nolo's general approach to divorce in the United States is helpful, I wanted more information about the process I face in California and the particular laws of my state. The author of Divorce for Grownups closed that gap for me. To summarize, I recommend that readers who live in California considering purchasing both books. One is a good general primer. The other is a helpful guide to divorcing in California.

Soup to nuts of divorce. The author walks the reader through the steps without speaking down to you or over your head in 'legalese'. Multiple situations and their solutions are explored, explained and pros and cons given. I would absolutely recommend, and have already, this book to anyone considering a separation and/or a divorce. Job well done!

This book covers all the bases. What to think about. How to approach things. What has to be done. How to do it. It's bound to be a tough time for anybody that needs this book, so having it explain things is helpful. It is a little "off-putting" to have to basically "study" this topic and spend more time thinking about something you don't want to, but it's way cheaper than a lawyer! And it is best to know the ins and outs of what you'll be dealing with.

When this guide says "Essential" they're really referring only to the financial side of the divorce. It's definitely helpful, although a lot of the information you could probably find on the internet. This book doesn't really address the emotional side of divorcing your spouse, but that's probably another book in itself. Much of the information is generic - state specific divorce laws will probably have to be found elsewhere. Overall a good, basic resource if you're going through a divorce or are curious about what it could entail financially.

Amicable or not, divorce is an unpleasant experience. NOLO's book is a wonderful reference for people to use in the legal system, if only to become familiar with the terminology and legalese. It also assists people in realizing how many paths and choices there are in divorce. These paths can be emotional, social, financial, or none/all of the above. The best advice given is to try mediation before anything else. Divorce is an expensive choice, for anyone involved, as well as painful. While this resource is excellent in providing information and references, everyone's situation is different.

It's an excellent book to have if you and your partner are considering divorce and don't want it to be acrimonious - and it offers online updates, directories, and dictionaries.

I chose this book to gain some insight in how to deal with raising my sons after the breakup of a twelve year relationship. Along with this book, I chose another book published by Nolo, Being a Great Divorced Father. Out of the two, the Being a Great Divorced Father is a better choice for those men trying to deal with their kids. The Essential Guide is best for dealing with the significant other. I will say this, if you are going through a separation, and you want a substantial advantage, get a lawyer in addition to the book. The book will save you money in the aspect that lawyers charge by the hour. The lawyer will be there to fill in the gaps that the book doesn't cover very well.