What Will Cause Your Divorce To Cost More
Posted on: 14 March 2020
If you and your spouse have decided to get a divorce, one of your concerns may be how expensive it will be. There are certain legal proceedings that you must go through, and you and your spouse will be represented by your own lawyers. Here are some reasons why your divorce could end up costing more, and what you can do about it.
Deciding Custody
One of the hardest things to decide on during a divorce is the custody arrangements for children. You and your spouse may have a disagreement about who will have physical custody and what the visitation schedule will be. The best way to cut down on the expense of deciding child custody is to make the decisions together.
Before you step into mediation, it is best to talk out the details of the custody arrangement with what would be best for the children. At this point you have full control over the outcome of the custody arrangement, which makes it appealing to everyone involved. If you have a disagreement that cannot be worked out in mediation, it will eventually need to be taken to court where a judge makes a decision, and you may end up with a decision that neither person is happy with.
Dividing The Estate
If you're a young couple without many assets, dividing the estate should be simple. You'll likely have very little joint-owned property, which makes deciding who will receive the assets very easy. Unfortunately, things get very complicated when there is a larger estate.
For example, you may have a difficult time figuring out how to divide joint investments that you have. While the simple solution would be to sell investments and divide the earnings, that may not be the best choice for every type of investment that could have a long-term payoff. Inheritances and retirement benefits are another complicated matter to work out as well, especially if you have not received them yet.
Go into mediation with a general idea of how you want to split things up, and then let the lawyers figure out how to legally do it.
Deciding Spousal Support
One thing to know about spousal support is that anything you agree to must be approved by a judge, which is to protect a spouse from receiving less than what they are owed. That said, it will help to sit down and work out a budget for each person after the divorce and factor how spousal support will fit into it. You can use this budget to show a judge how you came to your conclusion, and hope that the judge approves your joint decision.
For more information, contact local professionals like those found at Bray & Johnson Law Firm.
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