Summary
3StepDivorce is still the best option for couples who want a quick and easy uncontested divorce. The software is a bit dated and isn’t usable on a phone, but the level of detail and comprehensiveness shines. It will save you hours of time and lots of headaches.
What is 3StepDivorce?
3StepDivorce is an online service for couples who want an uncontested divorce.
It guides you through a detailed set of questions about your marriage, finances, property division, debt obligations, children and other essential topics. With your answers, it auto-generates all the documentation and forms you’ll need for going to court and finalizing your divorce.
You get access to an online portal where you can download your documents whenever you want.
3StepDivorce has been operating since 1997 and is a well-respected business, having been mentioned by major news outlets like USA Today and Forbes. You can call its customer support line and speak to a real person. It guarantees its service and will issue refunds if a customer is dissatisfied.
Just how much paperwork is there for a divorce?
How does 3StepDivorce work?
Step 1: Eligibility
First, they verify if you qualify for an online divorce by asking you a some questions you can answer in just a few minutes. Once you qualify you are prompted to create an account to get started.
If you can’t find your spouse or if your divorce is contested, you will not be able to use 3StepDivorce or any other online divorce service.
Step 2: Detailed Questionnaire
After making your account, you’ll then begin answering a lengthy questionnaire covering all aspects of your divorce.
There aren’t any complicated or tricky questions. There’s just a lot of them. But that’s good! It’s supposed to be detailed and comprehensive. After all, making sure you don’t make any mistakes is a major reason why you would use 3StepDivorce in the first place.
If you get confused during the process, each question comes with an explanation. For example, here we can see the start of an explanation of a question about property division. It tells you exactly how to answer and provides an example of how specific to get when describing items you or your current spouse ought to each receive when the divorce is official.
Step 3: Get Documents
When you’ve completed the entire questionnaire, it’s time to generate your documents and court forms. This is where the the value of 3StepDivorce becomes apparent.
In the click of a button, we received everything we needed to go to court and get a divorce. Do you know how many separate forms you need to get a divorce in California? Thirty-five! 3StepDivorce gave us all of them in an instant.
You can download each one as a PDF and print it.
Along with the court documents you also receive detailed instructions on how to file, including the addresses and phone numbers of all the courts in your state.
Additionally, 3StepDivorce provides instructions for how to do other essential divorce tasks, including:
Dividing a retirement account
Registering for mandatory parenting education classes (if you have minor children)
Requesting a court fee waiver form
Our Experience
We paid for and tried 3StepDivorce for a California divorce. We challenged it to handle a more-complicated-than-usual divorce:
Three minor children
One spouse was in the military
Frequent moves in the recent past
Uneven debt obligations between the husband and wife
Spousal maintenance
Child support
A custom child custody schedule (aka parenting plan)
It took us about an hour to fill out the questionnaire. How realistic is that for the average person getting a divorce?
If you look at the total amount of time spent sitting in front of the computer answering questions, anywhere between one and two hours is very realistic for the average person.
However, that assumes that you and your current spouse have discussed all the major topics and the questionnaire doesn’t prompt any additional conversations.
For most people, filling out the form will be a stop-and-go process. Have you really hammered out all the details of how to divvy up retirement savings? Do you have a plan for how each parent is going to contribute to college costs if the children go to college?
Thankfully, the 3StepDivorce portal will auto-save all your answers. It will also let you skip questions and come back to them later.
The best approach is probably to budget an hour to complete as many questions as you can alone. Write down any discussion points that need addressing with your current spouse. As you have those conversations, you can complete the outstanding questions in 3StepDivorce.
What we liked
It’s very simple to use
Solid customer service (see below)
The documents are comprehensive and well-organized
Detailed instructions for everything from the nuts and bolts of how to file with the court to how to divide up retirement benefits
They will mail you your documents for free if you want
What we didn’t like
It’s unusable on a phone, so you’ll need to sit down at a computer
It doesn’t accommodate same-sex couples, though 3StepDivorce says it’s working on this.
To clarify, your only option is to have one wife and one husband. Nonetheless, the legal documents will still be OK for same-sex couples because in those each person is simply referred to as either the Petitioner or Respondent.
You need to download each document individually — it would be more convenient if you could download them all at once.
How does it compare?
What does it cost?
Using 3StepDivorce to generate all your divorce documents costs $299 (as of 2022). If you want, you can pay in installments with the first payment being just $84.
If you’re truly ready to get divorced today, they offer a $50 rebate if you file your papers within one business day of starting the questionnaire.
If you choose to pay using installments it will not delay your divorce, just delay your bill. You will pay slightly more with the installments options.
Does 3StepDivorce offer a guarantee?
3Stepdivorce guarantees that 100% of all your documents will be accepted by the court when you file for divorce.
If for any reason that you find yourself in a situation and your divorce paperwork was not accepted, simply reach out to them and they will make things right.
To quote them:
Our Premium Online Divorce Software and Service is offered with a peace-of-mind 100% guarantee. We offer a 100% guarantee that the documents will be accepted by the court. In the event that the documents are rejected by the court due to the fault of ours, you will be provided a 100% refund (with no handling fee).
Customer Service
We called 3StepDivorce customer service to ask a bunch of general questions about their service, divorce process and the platform. They were friendly and knowledgeable, both about their own service as well as divorce generally. They mentioned that when you purchase the 3StepDivorce service you also get extra resources to help you through your divorce:
Summary
All-in-all, we think 3StepDivorce is a great service that will continue helping people through their uncontested divorces for years to come.
It’s a good choice if you’d like to quickly power through all the paperwork without risking making mistakes.
After you factor in the value of your time and the headaches that this service can help you avoid, the $299 price tag starts to look pretty good. Especially compared to hiring a lawyer, which can cost upwards of $1,000 even for a simple divorce.
We recommend 3StepDivorce and think it’s a worthwhile option for people who want an uncontested divorce.