When a couple is divorcing and they already have started the divorce process without an attorney and decide later they want to hire one, the question becomes whether they can hire an attorney after they filed the initial filings. The answer to that is yes. Now one of the things that you may find the attorney does based on the circumstances is that they may want to go back and amend the filings that have been made already. One of the spouse’s might not have put something in there correctly or there may be other things that they didn’t think of, but the attorney may find to be important and wants to make sure added.
What happens at that point is oftentimes they have to file to get permission from the court to file an amended pleading. It’s really not that difficult most of the time if there’s an attorney on the other side. Sometimes the attorney will cooperate and they’ll actually just agree to allow it most of the time because it’s usually just not worth the fight over whether you should be able to do one thing or not. Based on the rules under most circumstances, one does have to get permission from the court to file an amended pleading. However, at the same time, it’s usually not that big of a deal with the other party. Especially if they get them to do an agreed order. At that point you filed the amended pleading.
That’s typically what happens after one has hired an attorney after the filings already have been done. What usually needs to happen when an attorney comes on after the filings is that the attorney is going to have to get caught up on everything. The attorney should know as much as humanly possible about the filings and case. If the attorney agrees not to amend the filings, then it’s probably going to save some money because the attorney is not going to have to go down to the courthouse and dig up a bunch of files.
Another thing quite possibly that could happen as well is the attorney cooperates with the other attorney to get copies. However, that’s going to be an added cost as well. If one wants to hire an attorney at the last minute, oftentimes potential scheduling issues for attorneys could occur. Oftentimes their hearings are set sometimes months ahead and they quite possibly could have a hearing that’s scheduled on that particular day that the people being divorced have their hearing set. Some judges have a policy they’re generally going to do what is called a continuance, but some judges will not delay the case just because your attorney is with another case that day. If one does decide they are going to hire an attorney after they already filed for their West Virginia divorce, then it’s better to do it sooner rather than later because this could avoid a lot of the potential issues versus waiting to the last minute.
