In this article, you will learn:
- Additional options to prepare for divorce
- When to hire an attorney
- How and why temporary orders may be put in place
The most important thing to do is to understand what your expectations are. If your expectations are that you are going to keep all the money to yourself, not support the other person and have the children to yourself, then that is not likely going to happen. You are going to find yourself in a frustrating situation. I suggest to people when they call me and say “I’m thinking about filing for a divorce, what should I do now?”, if they are the person who has handled the financial aspects, great because they are going to have access to that information and be able to get that to me easily. If they are not, they might not be able to get that information without sounding the alarm to the other person, and they do not need to. But if they ARE able to, great. That will move the process along. My focus is always to make sure that that person is safe, especially while they are still living together. I do not just mean physically safe; I also mean emotionally safe, because it can be very stressful to feel like they are trying to sneak around to get financial information because otherwise, they are not going to have it.
The state of California is very protective of making sure people have the financial information in a divorce and does not put the obligation on people to play detective. There is an obligation on each party to disclose to the other party the full financial picture.
Helping them to get an idea of where they are going to live is also crucial. Those things are what they need to start thinking about, as well as what they are going to be doing with kids. Many times, one person has been doing all the childcare and the other person has been doing most of the working. That is not necessarily how things are going to be after they are separated or divorced, so I help them to articulate for me what they expect or how they envision things going forward so that they are not surprised.
When Temporary Orders May Be Used In Family Law And Divorce Cases?
One example is the temporary child sharing orders, not that it is final, because a child custody order is never a set-in-stone order because circumstances change, and the best interests of the children are what always guide any changes to any order. Also, temporary support orders are important to have because then we can focus on moving the case forward. The temporary support can be informal and we only need it as a formal order if somebody is not abiding by it. If we have an informal agreement that, for example, some people continue using a joint checking account, great. As long as they are doing what they agreed to do, and everybody is in continued agreement with that, then it is fine.
A temporary order can also be helpful, for example, on a sale of a house to decide how they are going to handle it, and how they are going to deal with the mortgage, taxes, and expenses while the house is pending sale, as well as how they will deal with any type of repairs.
When To Hire A Divorce Or Family Law Attorney?
My suggestion to people is if they are thinking about it, they probably are already at a point where they should have hired someone because the concern is being caught unprepared or off-guard or having to catch up. I have a person who has been speaking with me for a few months, but they have been in a temporary situation where they are both still living in the house and are intending to divorce, but no one really wants to push things. However, we then found out that the other party filed for divorce. The potential client is still speaking with me and not certain that she wants to engage me just yet, but I think she is going to find herself in a situation where she is unprepared.
The hiding the head in the sand approach is not one that I recommend, but I do recommend getting the correct information and early. By correct information, I mean by a family law attorney rather than well-meaning advice from friends just because they have gone through a divorce themselves, or even from someone’s own internet research.
For more information on Family Law in California, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you seek by calling us at (858) 225-4840 today.
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