Separation Agreement in Alberta - is a lawyer a MUST

[bmhc]

After 5 years and thousands of dollars I have finally come to an agreement with my ex (without the "help" of our lawyers). We have already split our property except for money held in trust by my lawyer from the sale of our house. We now agree to split it. I do not want any more legal fees (I am not even in the same jurisdiction). I have read varying opinions. Is it a legal neccesity in Alberta to have a lawyer witness our agreement. We were just going to have it notarized and forward it to the lawyer for payout. There are no children and no other issues. I would appreciate a concrete answer so I can finally put this behind me. Thanks

[midnightvampyr]

You do not need a lawyer for this....

[NBDad]

Any separation agreement where both parties do not have independent legal advice prior to signing is not worth the paper it is printed on.

The lawyer works for you, ALWAYS remember that. If both your ex and yourself have drafted an agreement between you that is acceptable to you both, take it to your lawyesr, tell them you want them to review it to see if you've worded anything ambigously, or in such a way that makes it hard to enforce, but that you want to keep the terms exactly as specified.

[bmhc]

Thanks for your replies. I understand the principle of having a lawyer look things over. I just need to now if it is possible under Alberta law to accomplish this without any further legal opinion. Some have said it is a legal necessity in Alberta and others say we can do it without further legal opinion. I do not trust this lawyer to look out for my interests (after a number of issues and costly errors) but since I live out of province, I can't get other representation to look it over. When reading an email from me costs about $100, I shudder to think what his imput into this might be. All I want him to do is write the cheques. At this point I would rather take my chances with my own errors than more of his. If left in the hands of lawyers, there won't be anything left to split.