Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce,   ISBN:9781413308914

Customer Rating: 

This is a must read before going to see a lawyer. Although there is not very much helpful state specific advice or guidance, there is enough detail to prepare you for what lies ahead.

Customer Rating: 

Wading through the rough waters of separation and divorce is a painful journey. If you are considering either, read first, consult later. This book provides a valuable (though general) first look at the realities of divorce. One of the most valuable points of advice is to seek mediation over litigation, an opinion shared by some of my ethical lawyer friends, who note that mediation saves money, time, dignity and angst. But because mediation is not always possible, this book does help to prepare the reader for some harsher scenarios. Overall, this Nolo guide's greatest contribution is a realistic introduction to a complex subject; the better prepared one can be when approaching divorce, the better the outcome. A bit generalized, it receives four stars instead of five, but worth the money. Recommended.

Customer Rating: 

Got this book for a friend whose marriage was in trouble and it has been a source of excellent and essential information and advice as she has begun (after years of false starts) her soon to be final exit. Well-written, full of useful info and fairly easy to navigate. Very highly recommended.

Customer Rating: 

The more Nolo titles I read, the more I like their approach to content. Some titles take the more focused approach of educating you and providing legal forms to get things done yourself, where appropriate, like several in the LLC series. Others, such as this, as stated on the cover, are more of a guide to what you should think about and what you might encounter in the situation. This book is a guide about the divorce process, before, during, and after.

I like the approach of including material in sections called "taking the high road", when you can agree, and "taking the low road", when you cannot. Working things out amicably is emphasized to avoid turning it into an even more arduous, expensive, and painful process. The book handles the issues of separation before divorce, kids and who goes where, finances in divorce, and more. There are special issues sections for when the divorce involves someone in the military and when things really go wrong.

I would recommend this book to someone finding themselves in the unfortunate predicament. It will help as a basis for some support along the way.

Customer Rating: 

51% of *all* marriages end in divorce. This book offers broad, general overviews of two (2) varieties of marriage, and their cataclysmic failure.
If you are moderately wealthy, have title to real estate, automobiles, boats, and one or two business interests, and school-age children, you may find this book helpful. Similarly, if you are a victim of domestic violence* and your spouse is an active duty officer in the military, you will find direction here.
I handled my own divorce, and found it curious but not as complex or important as ensuring that my husband [addiction stricken], our families, and our larger sphere of friends were all going to be ok. And I was lucky. In the decade since, I've kept up with the literature and case law, mostly as a break from my writing career, and periodic peeks into "what might have been" if I'd gone with law instead. And now I've been given the opportunity to bring fresh new perspective, and reread as much as my eyes would absorb, once the bruises had faded.
Every other Nolo book on divorce that I've read - there are a few, all neatly balanced in their glossary training, directives, repetition toward focus, and separate attention to psychological/survival concerns and the cash money business that is divorce. The key point to all the Nolo Press books on divorce is "It's Gonna Get Ugly - if you bring lawyers into it." That may be why and how my first divorce was, in the end, really the best thing for both of us: no lawyers. Just us, reasoning everything out and executing our decisions. My ex and I are still family, just not married.

This book is not like the others in the Nolo divorce library. I found nothing of applicable aid or utility, even after scouring the index for references to my current dilemma, and poring over the referenced page numbers: nope. bubkiss.
Unless you are a suburban housewife with 2.5 kids and way too many vehicles and vacation homes, or, alternately, a military spouse (not enlisted or officer) who's livelihood and life have nearly been subsumed by domestic violence, Ms. Doskow's book has nothing to offer. Not lines of texts or forms, or thorough review of deadlines, or very much at all beyond "talk to your clergy, talk to your friends, then discard their advice immeidately," I'm not saying that's useless advice -- it's sound -- I'm just saying her vague sort of waving at concepts but not in any operational sort of way in fact goes double for those specific markets Ms Doskow writes to here.
A thorough reading reveals not even an addendum in re Domestic Violence legislation. There are groundbreaking, lifesaving new laws on the books in several states, many immediately beneficial [given enforcement], with strong potential for the future given the unexplored economic impact that surely must follow. Not one tiny mention is made. More remarkable, from my embedded position in and of the pre-existing system, as our political and economic times grow ever more interesting [circa 2008-9] , is the total lack of even a survey of how things really turn out, in actual cases studied, and what turns are typically made to put them there. Mostly I'm annoyed that of the 26 index entries for "spousal support", 26 refer to utility-free glosses on "kid" support and negotiating visitation. But the topic is -- more often than society admits except under its breath, with a gentle hand on your shoulder when it finds you crying in the street -- intimate assault, and how courts administer the "bought it" side of the "broke it" milieu.
There is no budget for enforcement of DV in California. There is no self-regulation within the State or local boards. There are a lot of bad lawyers, out to fleece psychotic abusers and their utterly disoriented victims, and they're succeeding, and the harm that is done thereby does more than enough to counteract the potential benefit of the [assist victims through networks of shelters: get them safe, secure, and productive [again], and if they have kids, esp if those kids are Citizens while they are left undocumented, help them more.
This is the stuff of sea change: of providing resources, esp. educational, and habitable housing, and productive work, to some of the hardest working, most dedicated, underestimated and not yet properly quantified resources in society today.
This book is more for feeling ok about not getting the boat.
I highly recommend "Make Any Divorce Better", "Legal Essentials for Couples", and find more immediately applicable than any so far the title "How to Solve Divorce Problems in California." I'd send a copy to my batterer soon-to-be-ex, if I didn't think it'd only make him crazier.
The Nolo catalog is full of better books, like "How to Solve...", that help you examine your own circumstances from a neutral distance and systematically apply logic to each facet of each problem and goal, if yours is a realm in which logic applies. DV=not so much. It almost always ends as it began, in grotesque games of dirty pool, turning whatever remains of assets and values, dreams and accomplishments, and deepest personal integrity into senseless, plodding, horrific outrage, and common filthy lucre.
This book won't help you figure your way around any of that. It might you navigating your way to the bottom of a bottle, or the side of a tree, or your editor with a coherent thesis, adequately presented, as a contribution to the field. "Essential" reads like a contract requirement, with no one to satisfy but the board.