Saturday, October 11, 2008

Divorce Attorney: 10 Pre-Divorce Actions

Divorce Attorney

Divorce is undoubtedly a very traumatic process and affects a great deal of your emotional and financial situation. But sometimes for the better good, this traumatic process is necessary and coping up with it may take a bit of an effort but eventually everything works out. Getting a divorce these days is not much of an issue as most of the legal technicalities could be handled by an attorney and you do not even have to worry about finding one because you can do it online too. Every state has different laws for divorce and other areas such that and its better to hire an attorney rather than stepping into all of this alone cause believe it or not you would need support somewhere down the road and attorneys really help when situation like this occurs. There are several pre-divorce actions you should consider before filing for divorce.

1. Line up your finances: Before filing for divorce, you should make a list of all the finances you have including joint or individual assets, liabilities, credit card statements, bank accounts, insurance plans, retirement plans etc. Your divorce attorney would need the list of your finances to prepare for your divorce case and having it prepared before hand makes the process much faster and you would have an idea about the division of the assets and liabilities before filing the divorce.

2. You think you can handle the finances? Up until now your house was jointly or single-handedly managed by your spouse. Before filing the divorce you should consider your financial situation a bit. Think about if you can handle the finances alone. If not, then is your spouse ready to pay a percentage of your expenses? On all these grounds your attorney would be able to prepare the right case for you. Try getting some help from your financial advisor(s) regarding the situation and analyze the whole thing.

3. Property issues: According to state divorce law, only that property which is jointly-owned or is acquired during marriage is supposed to be divided. Prior-marriage properties are not divided according to state laws. This sounds easy but believes me you would cry "Jesus Christ!" once this get bad. Its one of those legal technicalities where you should let your attorney work for you.

4. Get an Attorney: Cleaning up your own mess by yourself is something very brave and not many people do that but in a sensitive matter like divorce where so much is involved you should get a pro to work out things for you. Sure you can do it by yourself but it is not recommended for you unless you yourself know law or happen to be an attorney. Attorneys line up your legal work including your financial statements etc and work the way you want them to plus it really helps a lot when someone is there to advise you the right thing in difficult times and it makes the decision-making process a lot easier. So, get an attorney.

5. Close Assessment: When you get into a divorce case you are letting the court, attorneys, and your spouse to scan and analyze every bit of a detail of your life like a DNA sample. Everything affects a great deal of court's decision so you should make sure to be as rational as possible during the case. Rational in all senses: behavior, behavior with children, financial activities, your lifestyle to be precise. The court and your spouse (specially) would be scrutinizing your activities to get any made-up evidences so try not to be on the edge during the case.

6. Child-Custody: If there are children involved in the case then you should know your rights about child custody and you should consult your attorney for any assistance required about child-custody and state laws in that regards.

7. Set of Documents before you file for divorce: You would need to have your and your spouse's income documents (paycheck statements, tax return etc), monthly bank statements, 401k (account statement of pension account, pre-marriage account statement), complete records of credit/debit card transactions, real estate records (deed of trust, warranty deed, documents to prove any prior-marriage individually owned real estate assets, purchase slips), debt and mortgages statements (payoff balance statements, creditor's statements showing payoff position), correspondence proofs (faxes, emails or letters in which your spouse admitted anything relevant).

8. Understanding of rights: Fully understand your rights before filing for divorce. You should know about the right property distribution, alimony, child support/custody rights, and distribution of debts right (at the time of the divorce, debts are equally divided according to the state laws and case scenarios). Consult your divorce attorney for the awareness of your rights when it comes to divorce.

9. Relieve some pressure off: With a traumatizing situation like divorce where you cut almost half of your life away from yourself including someone you took vows with, you ought to be stressful and angry. Realize that life has ups and downs and the only way to survive is to move on. It of course takes quite a time to heal but by trying harder, it's going to be alright eventually. You can try visiting new places to divert your mind from all the stress and be social. If you cut yourself off from the society just because you are going through crisis then the crisis are going to be much harder and you don't want that for sure.

10. You really think this is it? Always keep your mind open to think if this is really what you want. Divorce is an option but not an obligation. Things sometimes don't work out and if we analyze our situations a bit so we might be wrong somewhere so always keep your doors open for getting things work out. As they say, it's never too late so it's true that it's never too late to make things right. If you go for the right thing with the right attitude then there is no chance that you would fail.

For further information regarding divorce laws in different states and divorce attorneys, please visit: http://www.aboutdivorce.org/

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