The Akron Legal News

Getting divorced? There's an app for that

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: April 8, 2014

Interested in getting a divorce? There’s an app for that.

For couples heading toward splitsville, various technology companies have started finding ways to ease both the cost and headache of making that final break-up.

A divorce can mean spending hours fighting over who gets the house and who should take the car and haggling over holidays with the children.

For many, those hours are observed by attorneys and can become quite costly.

But now, through the use of apps downloaded onto a smartphone or tablet, a person can calculate the cost of a divorce, divide their debts and assets, and organize the necessary documents on their own time.

National law firm Fox Rothschild LLP launched its New Jersey Divorce app last summer through Apple’s iTunes.

“Clients demand mobility in all aspects of their life, so this app is a continuation of our mission to provide clients with the best possible service in the format they most desire,” Fox’s Family Law Practice Co-chair Eric Solotoff said at the time.

The app, which is free for download, includes a finance tracker that helps users gather the information that will be needed during meetings with their attorneys throughout the divorce process and identifies assets that are sometimes hidden or overlooked.

Users can find information about myriad topics related to divorce, including child custody and support, alimony, equitable distribution and support groups or domestic violence shelters on the app and can have any questions ready when they meet with their counsel.

“As family lawyers, we know going through a divorce is one of the hardest challenges in life. Our app aims to make it a bit easier — to allow users to access crucial meeting notes, information and resources at their fingertips to ease the process,” Solotoff said.

Through the use of a blog, Fox is also able to address a great deal of practical information in a longer format while keeping with the trend toward technology.

For those looking to start the divorce process, DivorceApps.com, a Dallas-based company, is marketing a couple apps for iPhones that aim to assist those who “can’t afford the services of a lawyer and need to help themselves,” according to its website.

A “Cost and Prep” app is available for 99 cents in iTunes and helps users plan and track the costs of divorce.

The app’s “Divorce Cost Estimate” helps users understand the costs of a marital split by breaking things down into categories of costs.

Soft costs include things that will impact a user’s personal well-being, such as extra kids’ clothes, while hard dollars include hiring professionals, such as a forensic accountant, and parking at an attorney’s office.

A separate app, called Estate Divider, is available for the same price and helps the parties divide their assets and liabilities while providing information about the resulting tax rates.

APG MA also offers an app, iSplit Divorce, to help users split amicably.

The app shows users a screen that is divided into halves for each spouse. It then provides easy to understand graphics for all of the debts and assets in question.

A picture of a car is labeled with the type and value of the vehicle in question and similar graphics represent a house, various furniture and other valuables.

Users can then drag the icons to a certain side of the screen to assign it to a spouse.

The value of each spouse’s assets is calculated at the bottom of the screen.

A separate area on each half is designated to debts that are then subtracted from the total of the assets to give a final net value.

“Our mission is to help the people of this planet save themselves and each other from cynicism, psychological, financial and material annihilation,” iSplit’s website states.

While none of these apps intend to replace the need for an attorney during the time of divorce, they each aim to increase a spouse’s control of the situation.

Such control can often save time and money while also helping the couple reach a resolution in a more understandable way.

Still, DivorceApps.com notes that their apps are not “the provision of legal or professional services and the services of a competent attorney and/or other professionals should be obtained to ensure that your interests are represented and protected.”

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