Divorce Books - How They Came To Be

Divorce books are probably one of the most amazing things ever created. They have helped countless couples get divorced without having to spend so much on those expensive legal fees. We all know how costly legal battles can be, and divorce books help you do your own divorce, eliminating the need for the services of lawyers and court proceedings.

With that said, one can rightfully say that divorce books truly changed the world. If you're wondering how they came to be, then read on because I will tell you the story.

The man who started it all is California attorney Ed Sherman. In the late 1960s, he worked for Contra Costa County Legal Services as a Senior Attorney. Through his job, he saw a large number of people who could not access the free legal services because they were not considered poor enough. Yes, these people weren't poor enough, but they were also too poor to hire lawyers. You can say that they were stuck in between.

Ed Sherman was very frustrated by this situation, so he left Legal Services in 1970. He started his own law practice in Berkeley, California. I'm pretty sure that you're now picturing an idealistic young lawyer sitting behind an office desk in some modern-looking building. But Ed did not work from a tall building, as you probably think--he worked in the living room of an old farmhouse.

In this farmhouse, Ed Sherman met his clients. He would give legal services and advice in exchange for whatever his clients could afford. While all this was going on, he was also thinking of ways to make the legal system more helpful and useful, especially to the general public.

Ed Sherman then decided to specialize in divorce. See, to get a divorce, a legal procedure has to be done. Ed was aware that the process was a very simple one, and did not like the fact that lawyers charged so much for their services. Wanting to help those who could not afford to get divorced, he decided to teach people how to fill out and file divorce papers without having to hire a lawyer. He put up posters for this clinic in Berkeley, CA, which would cost anyone who wanted to join $5.00.

In a room at the Berkeley Co-op, more than 40 people showed up at Ed's first do-it-yourself divorce workshop. All the participants were happy with Ed's project, especially when they realized how easy it is to handle a divorce.

After doing these divorce clinics for quite some time, Ed wanted to be able to reach more people. He felt like not enough people knew about filling out and filing divorce papers by themselves, so he created a book that would teach people how to do so in the state of California.

After being turned down by a publisher for the reason that no big publishing house would publish a divorce book for just one state (California), Ed published his book himself. This was when Nolo Press was born. Ed chose the name "Nolo" because in legal Latin it means "I do not wish" and he didn't really want to be a publisher.

Ed sold these divorce books around Berkeley, until they became an overnight sensation when the Sacramento Bar Association warned everyone against using them.