7 Things To Do To Save You Money During Your Divorce

There are very few things more frustrating than spending money needlessly on your divorce. The process is expensive enough due to the nature of the process, but there is an entire area of expense often, although inadvertently, created by the clients themselves. In a word, planning, or lack thereof, is probably the biggest time waster (read: expensive) in the entire process.

In an effort to avoid some of these expenses, here are 7 things you can do to assist your lawyer and, hopefully, reduce your costs.

1) Inventory Your Household. Hours and hours are often spent trying to prove that a particular asset existed and may have been taken by the opposing party. Often something as simple as taking a camcorder around the house and speaking out loud while recording will create a tape that will promptly bring the other side around and get them to either produce the item for division or admit the value of a taken item.

2) Locate Records. Your bank, tax, credit card, retirement, checking account and employment records are the key to a good resolution of the financial aspects of your case. Locate and copy them before the other side takes them out of the house, or their usual place of storage. Recreating these records, while usually possible, is an unneeded expense that can be avoided.

3) Locate Accounts And Safety Deposit Boxes. The location and inventory of the contents of safety deposit boxes and accounts are crucial to allowing your attorney to give you sound advice on protecting these assets.

4) Pre-order Missing Records. Ordering records often takes time. If you know or think you'll need them, order them now, not when you are first given notice that they're being demanded by the other side, or when your own attorney first needs to review them.

5) Give Thought To Where You Want To Live. Although no one will be asking you to have a complete plan for where you'll be living post-divorce in the first few days of your case, having some thoughts about possible locations will help your attorney frame the issues for the judge early.

6) Give Thought To Where The Kids Will Live. No one wants to give up time with their child(ren), but practicality and the best interest of your child(ren) often dictate the outcome of a custody battle. Calmly thinking this through before seeing your attorney avoids hours of angst and analysis over something that may be very obvious from the start. If you feel you're the better primary custodian, then you'll at least be better prepared to offer your attorney reasons why from the outset of the litigation, instead of paying them to come up with good reasons.

7) Monetary Support Ideas. Give some thought to your budget. Do you want to keep the house? How much does it cost? What about another place? How much will you need to put down and pay each month? Utilities? Food? Gas? If you have an idea of what you'll need to survive, your attorney can then assist you in addressing those needs.

A little pre-planning goes a very long way to saving you a fortune at the time of your divorce. When you're considering a divorce, Marcus and Associates is just phone a call away. Call us at (661) 251-6000 and get the power of aggressive trial attorneys on your side.

The above article is not intended to constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon in lieu of a consultation with a licensed attorney. The factual scenarios inherent in each case differ, and Marcus & Associates takes no responsibility for the use, or misuse, of the legal authority, arguments, or reasoning set forth above.