Becoming A Single Parent
The divorce process can often be exhausting and stressful. To ensure a successful outcome that you want, it is prudent to choose an expert Orange County family law attorney who can invest time in pre-divorce planning, is well-versed in the relevant laws, has strong negotiation skills, and understands your rights and how to protect them. If there is no negotiated settlement possible, it is preferable that your lawyer also has the requisite trial experience.
Strategic Planning is Vital to a Divorce
While a divorce can already be a difficult journey to navigate, not having a strategic plan can make things more challenging and drain your financial and emotional resources. This can affect people from all income levels, including high earners.
If you take a hard and unbiased look at divorce proceedings in general, it is unfortunately common that there is little or no strategic planning that goes behind most cases. This can happen regardless of how prominent or reputable divorce law firm you have hired.
Setting clear goals and formulating strategies for your divorce proceedings can lead to success with minimal negative impact. On the other hand, an absence of strategic divorce planning can increase your personal and financial challenges that you may have to contend with for the rest of your life.
Making Clear Plans While Staying Within Budget and Time Constraints
When it comes to a divorce, it may not be very productive to think of the money spent on legal fees during the whole process. Rather, it helps to think of it as an investment and the returns that you need to get from it. Your investment should be able to get you where you want swiftly and securely.
Having a clear divorce plan will improve your chances to obtain your desired results, whether in matters of child custody or regarding a financial settlement that is favorable to you. A favorable outcome is a lot more likely your Orange County family law attorney has a concrete divorce plan and strategy.
Ideally, your divorce lawyer should be able to focus on the nuances and complexities of child support, spousal support, and the basic needs of children so that essential standards of living can be maintained after a divorce. Hitting the fine balance between these needs and the financial implications that can arise from a divorce is critically important.
Important Steps Your Divorce Lawyer Should Take
- At the very outset, your lawyer must place a demand for all relevant financial documents that rest with your spouse so that you have a clear picture of what all you need to divide.
- In case either you or your spouse has any employment benefit or pension scheme, your lawyer should acquire a copy of the plan documents and the detailed account statements of the last few years.
- Your lawyer should take a call on the requirement of expert testimony for your case. If your spouse started a business during the marriage, for example, a business appraiser would be required to appraise and ascertain its value. Forensic accountants may be needed if you are worried about hidden assets from your spouse’s side.
- It is always a good idea for your lawyer to communicate with your spouse’s lawyer regarding your willingness to consider reasonable proposals to negotiate and settle. Leaving that option open can be beneficial as more often than not, it is best to settle instead of having to go to trial.
- Any letter and phone calls regarding the divorce should be responded to immediately and your lawyer should keep you in the loop about them. You should receive copies of letters within 24 hours and information on essential phone calls, like those discussing settlement proposals, should reach you as soon as is possible. Any court decisions should also be immediately conveyed to you by your attorney.
- The onus is on your lawyer to prepare you fully if the case goes to trial. To prepare, you can visit the court in advance. Your lawyer should prepare you to handle cross-examination and review all questions that would come from your end.
- While no competent lawyer would provide you a guarantee of winning a case, your lawyer should give you a realistic analysis of how much your position is supported by the law. Knowing the likely outcomes if your case does come to trial can be a great advantage.
Exercising More Control over Your Divorce
If you want to gain more control over the divorce process and want to be in a position to influence the outcome in as many ways as you can, the best you can do is to set clear strategic goals for the long-term.
For this, your attorney should help you plan every little step of your divorce in detail so that you have a clear path to achieving your goals. It is the lack of planning that has caused considerable emotional and financial stress, to the tune of millions of dollars, to a number of wealthy individuals in California divorces.
Let Us Craft the Right Divorce Plan for You
In order for the divorce process to be seamless and minimally damaging to your emotional and financial situation, you need a plan that is tailored to your personal circumstances and your long-term goals. This is exactly the kind of divorce plan that we can prepare for you, going beyond just the purely legal elements of the process.
With our professional guidance and support, you can achieve the most satisfactory outcomes from your divorce and other family law matters. We remain committed to helping you realize your goals through a measured and practical approach that is helped by our skill and experience. Schedule an appointment with us now to start discussing your divorce plan.
