Step-by-Step Guide to Hiring a Divorce Attorney
What do people consider when hiring an attorney?
Before you meet with an attorney-
What to ask during the first consultation?
Based on a professional survey of 1000 American consumers on the methods of searching for legal representation, the internet was the primary source to research and hire attorneys.
Accessed 3/2019 from 4/17/2014 FindLaw Survey, www.thomsonreuters.com
Empowering Low- and Moderate Income Women to navigate the complicated, legal divorce journey.
1. Debts incurred during a marriage are usually considered marital debts.
2. Responsibility for marital debts is allocated according to the property division laws of the state.
3. If you earn a higher income and/or have lower living expenses the court may consider you to assume a higher portion of the marital debt.
4. Interrogatories are written questions the spouse must answer in writing, under oath.
5. Depositions are when a spouse or party must answer questions under oath before a court reporter.
6. Many times depositions are requested when there are suspected hidden assets.
7. When one spouse’s legal team requests the other spouse to produce documents like bank statements, tax returns, financial documents or otherwise it is known as a request or notice for the production of documents.
8. Subpoena orders a witness to appear before a court or at a deposition.
9. Requests for inspection is when a spouse is in possession of some asset or financial documentation relevant to the settlement and the other spouse has reason to review or otherwise inspect or have access to them.
10. Hiding assets can have criminal and civil consequences.
11. It is very expensive and complicated to appeal your Final Judgement of Divorce (Divorce Decree). There usually must be compelling circumstances specific to legal error, abuse of discretion and/or fraud. Most have a low chance of success. There are often time limits to file an appeal.
12. Formal Modifications to your Judgement of Divorce (Divorce Decree) may be possible and are generally straight forward when both spouses agree. A Petition to Modify must still be filed and the modification must be granted by a judge. If both spouses do not agree, then the spouse seeking the modification would need to demonstrate to the court a convincing and on-going change of circumstances (e.g. loss of job, job transfer, medical event) as a reason to seek the modification. If you and your spouse agreed to a Settlement Agreement, the court will usually expect a reasonable amount of time to have passed in order for there to have been significant changes to induce the Petition to Modify.
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