Attorney and Mediator

Divorce is a complex process.  If you have children or own real estate, you will definitely need an experienced attorney to handle the divorce for you.

In Utah, all divorces must go through divorce mediation before they can go to trial.  The courts believe that most issues can be resolved through mediation without involving a trial.  If mediation fails to resolve the issues, then the case can continue through the legal process to trial, if necessary.

All divorces when filed are assigned to a commissioner and a judge.  Preliminary hearings are handled by the commissioner, who can usually resolve the issues.  In rare cases, unusually stubborn parties to the divorce will not settle without taking the matter to a full-blown trial before the judge.

Let Ms. Mann help you navigate through the maze of Verified Complaints, Summons, Service of Process, Hearings for Temporary Orders, Orders to Show Cause,  Child Custody Evaluations, and so on (there are many more documents and filings).  She'll get you through the morass and out the other side to freedom.

About 80% of divorces end up contested, where the parties disagree on some aspect of the terms of their divorce. When the couple is in total agreement on how the divorce is to be done, Ms. Mann will ensure that all necessary issues have been settled in a way that the courts will approve.  Then she will draft the required series of documents to formalize the agreement, file them with the court, and ensure that all necessary steps are accomplished.  More than a dozen documents are required, all of which must meet the court's exacting requirements.  Ms. Mann will take care of all of those matters and make certain that the divorce is finalized.

The parties to a divorce rarely agree on everything.  There will be disagreement.  In these situations, mediation may resolve the issues.  When it does not, each party needs an attorney to represent them to ensure that their interests are protected. 

Ms. Mann has represented literally hundreds of clients in these cases and knows where the pitfalls lie and how to avoid them.  She knows what is possible and what isn't.  She assists her clients to get the best deal possible.

It is possible to do your own divorce entirely on the Internet without the assistance of an attorney.  This is rarely a good idea, and should definitely not be done when there are children or real estate involved in the marriage.  There is simply too much at stake to take a chance on accidentally getting everything right.

Many of Ms. Mann's clients have started the process on the Internet only to realize that they were not going to be able to deal with all the problems they face in the divorce. 

Others of Ms. Mann's clients have come to her after they have done their divorce on the Internet.  Some have found that there were aspects of the divorce that were simply not considered or addressed in the divorce documents they created.  Others have found that the resulting divorce is simply unsatisfactory for a myriad of other reasons. 

Ms. Mann can solve those problems through a process that results in a Modification of Divorce Decree.