Divorce by Cell Phone: iPhone Apps Help You Get Divorced  
by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - Last updated 06/24/2010

It was only a matter of time before the legal world and the iPhone app world merged. There are now several iPhone applications that purport to help you to get divorced, by providing information, calculations and, at least by inference, advice (although of course they can’t call it legal advice without risking being hit for unauthorized practice of law - or, as we in the biz call it, UPL).

Actually, at least one of the companies putting out these apps has a family law attorney behind it. Michelle May O’Neill is one of the principles behind DivorceApps.com, which has brought their “Divorce Cost & Prep” and “Estate Divider” apps to the iTunes app store. (This means that a disgruntled user in our litigious society will be able to choose between reporting DivorceApps.com to the bar for UPL, or suing O’Neill for malpractice if they rely on the information from the app to their detriment. God bless our U.S. legal system.)

Another company, 3stepdivorce.com, has brought out “The Divorce Encyclopedia” which claims to give you “easy access to an extensive database of divorce information of over 1000 important terms and topics,” for $3.99, which they point out is “equal to 1 billable minute of most lawyers”.

For their part, DivorceApps.com’s current iPhone divorce applications (more in the works) allow you to determine how much a divorce is likely to cost you based on the realities of maintaining two homes instead of one (”Divorce Cost & Prep), and to start the process of actually dividing up your marital assets (”Estate Divider”).

Frankly, while we’re sure these are all fine, and legitimate applications, you are still going to have to go to an attorney in your area who practices in your jurisdiction to learn exactly what you will be facing should you choose to divorce. There is no national family law, and every state has different rules about even something seemingly simple (relatively speaking) as division of property, and when it comes to custody, all bets are off. Not only do the rules vary from state to state, they vary from judge to judge.

As many family law attorneys offer free consultations, that seems not only the better deal, but the wiser choice.