I’m a divorced dad in Seattle. I’m not a lawyer or professional divorce expert. But I believe that my experience can be valuable to others – and that’s what this blog is about.

There are many myths and falsehoods about divorce. Family court functions in mysterious ways, and the situation in Seattle is different than in many other places. Laws are state specific. Procedures are county specific. A lot of the information you find on the web is outdated or does not apply to your location. So this blog may be valuable to people who are in a similar situation: a contested divorce with children in King County, Washington. Some of the insights may apply to other locations, but I can’t promise that.

Family law is vague, open to bias, and full of traps. It is in dire need of reform. Some of these issues will be discussed here. I will also talk about more practical issues of the divorce process. A focus will be on strategy and cost, since these are issues that many lawyers tend to ignore.

The outline of the next few posts will roughly follow the timeline of a divorce:

1. Marriage counseling
2. Divorce with children: yes or no?
3. Do I need a lawyer?
4. Restraining orders
5. Temporary orders
6. Parenting evaluators and other experts
7. Mediation
8. Settlement or trial
9. Details of the parenting plan
10. Marriage: yes or no?

For those who stumbled on this blog because they need advice right now, here are a couple of good resources:

• David Crouse, Divorce in Washington, 2014 (Amazon link)
• Washington Law Help: Divorce and Separation

I absolutely do not recommend books or websites that are not specific to your state. Divorce law is very different in different states, and following generic advice that does not consider your state law will mislead you.

This is not legal advice. I’m not a lawyer. If you need legal advice, get a lawyer (and be prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars).