This is an Important Update to MensDivorceHQ.com, and we ask that all of our visitors please take a moment to read this announcement…
When we developed this website, there were a number of goals that we wanted to accomplish. The first was to provide a continuous stream of information about separation, divorce, and child custody that any man could use in order to get a much-needed head-start. The best method for this was pretty straightforward when you consider how easily one can add information to site that is based on a blogging platform. So far that has gone very well with the only complaint being that there are only 24 hours in a day, and time constraints have made constantly updating the website with fresh divorce advice and tips a little difficult. But that may change when we implement the changes that will be described below. The idea is to make the best out of bad situation and we believe we have found a way to do that.
Anyway, here is the problem that we have run into….
For those of you who are fairly new to this site, you may not know, but we have spent a great deal of our time answering specific divorce questions and providing tips, via email and IM, about how to make it through their divorce “successfully”. This became a popular part of the website, as many visitors made their way to the contact page and asked every question that they could think of. Most of these questions were very specific to their divorce and were not covered on the website. This was great, because it allowed us to help other guys out who were looking for some kind of information that would help them personally. Granted is was very time-consuming, and took away from updating the website on a regular basis, but at least we knew that someone was definitely getting some feedback in their divorce issues.
But something happened that had to screw it all up…
Throughout any email conversations that we had with men who were seeking help with their divorce, we would state, on numerous occasions, that none of us were trained divorce attorneys and any information and/or tips that we provided were never to be used as substitute for an attorney. Well, apparently somebody didn’t fully understand that disclaimer and attempted to pursue his divorce, without a lawyer, based completely on the information that we provided.
We would have been fully able to explain the problem with this had he notified any of us of his intentions. But since he did not reveal to any of us about his plans to represent himself in his divorce, we omitted some of the minor legal crap that those that have a divorce attorney would never have to worry about. You see, 100% of the divorce attorneys out there take care this part of the service they provide to their clients. In this case, a single page form concerning property matters, that was exclusive to the county that this gentleman resided in.
To make a long story short, he only had part of the information that he needed to complete his divorce, and was completely blown out of the water by his ex-wife’s divorce attorney. And having no one to blame but himself (for not hiring an attorney or at least letting someone here know of his intentions to represent himself ), low and behold he finally employed the services of a lawyer. But his intentions, this time, was to try and sue someone here at mensdivorcehq.com, saying that we provided him with misleading “legal” advice that lead to a bad outcome in his divorce.
Believe it or not, we had expected this to happen at some point and that is why the disclaimer is added in the first place. There was absolutely no basis for his lawsuit, and it did not even make it past the first couple of stages. But we did receive a stern recommendation from the judge and given the fact that none of us can afford any serious legal issues (it cost us $2500 just to get a lawyer just to get it thrown out), we are going to abide by his advice… “stick to the website and leave the courtroom to the attorneys”, which was actually our plan in the first place.
We have a win:win solution…
As a result of all of this, we will no longer be able to work with anyone one-on-one via e-mail, IM, snail mail, or any other method. We especially want to apologize to everyone that was awaiting responses to their questions. Instead, we will be looking through all emails (past, current, and future) and using those to anonymously pull out questions or issues about divorce to use in future updates. That way the information will be available to all our visitors, some of whom have similar questions, and yet your questions can still be answered. So the format can stay the same as it is now, just any e-mails that you sent will be answered on the website. And don’t worry… No personal details will ever be used on the site. We won’t even let be know if you are a man or woman!
So keep sending us any questions about your divorce that you can think of and then pay close attention to the website as we answer it without providing any direct legal advice. Pretty smart, huh? We think so too..
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