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While many couples behave honestly and fairly during a divorce, in other cases, spouses may try to harm the other financially. An angry divorcing spouse may try to hide assets, empty bank accounts, destroy property, or otherwise dissipate the marital estate. If you have good reason to believe you...

The cost of divorce can vary wildly -- from practically free to almost all of a couple's assets. On one end of the spectrum, spouses can draft their own divorce settlement agreement, have a lawyer review it, and pay only the necessary court filing fees. At the other end, animosity can get the bes...

When Your Spouse Won't Provide Financial Information If you're going through a divorce, one of the first things an attorney will tell you is to gather your financial information, including bank account statements, credit card statements, title documents, and mortgage documents. Some couples have...

This article will explain why it's important to get up to speed on your finances and what information you should gather before your divorce. Why It's Important to Know Your Financial Details In every divorce, one issue that must be resolved is the division of property and debt. But before you c...

There's more to filing for divorce than simply submitting your complaint to the court. Following these ten tips will help you achieve a better outcome in your divorce. Be Certain You Want to Get Divorced While this may seem obvious, the decision to get divorced is an emotional one, and shouldn'...

Whether you're simply considering divorce, you've already hired an attorney, or you're filing on your own (called filing “pro se”), you should learn about the necessary elements of a divorce petition. While the specific items you'll need to include may vary slightly from state to state, this arti...

Millions of Americans suffer from addiction, including to alcohol, illegal drugs, and prescription drugs. Oftentimes, those who are battling addiction can create serious problems within their own families, which may lead to divorce. If you're divorcing a spouse with an addiction, you should under...

Divorcing couples are usually most concerned with the date their divorce will become final, but there are a number of reasons why the “date of separation” (when one spouse decides the marriage is officially over) is actually more important. Courts in many states use the date of separation as an...

Many spouses are caught off guard when their spouse files for divorce. Getting served with divorce papers can be a jarring experience. Courts take efforts to make sure that both the plaintiff and defendant in a divorce case receive equal treatment, but there are still some advantages to being t...

Typically, divorcing spouses have a variety of professionals working with them, and they come with a variety of fees. You may be ultimately responsible for paying your attorney, appraisers, and accountants, and other types of experts. If you have children, the court could appoint a guardian ad ...

Even if you have no income, you may be able to hire a divorce lawyer and get funds from your spouse for fees. Courts typically won't let one spouse use marital money to hire an attorney and leave the other spouse without representation. In this article for lawyers.com, I explain how to request...

More than 90 percent of divorce cases settle prior to trial either by one spouse offering a settlement that the other accepts, or at mediation. Sometimes, however, the spouses simply can't come to an agreement on an issue like child custody, child support, property division, or alimony, and they ...

When trying to gather information and documents for your divorce case, you'll likely have third parties that have information you need. Serving these witnesses with interrogatories or requests for documents is an option to obtain this information. In this article for lawyers.com, I explain dif...

In this article for lawyers.com, I explain how and why third-party witnesses may be required to appear for divorce depositions. One of the best ways to get information from third-party witnesses is by deposing them. In this article for lawyers.com, I explain how and why third-party witnesses ...

While some spouses can work together to resolve their divorce cases without spending very much on fees and costs, it's not unusual for a couple to spend ten percent or more of their net worth litigating their divorce. In this article for lawyers.com, I explain how to effectively and efficiently ...

When divorcing parents can't agree on child custody arrangements, a court must decide for them. In a custody dispute, parents often disagree about the roles they play in the child's upbringing one parent may exaggerate the amount of time spent with a child or downplay how much the other parent se...

When a couple divorces, the spouses experience many significant life changes. One or both spouses may be moving to a new residence, children split their time between two households, and a non-working spouse may return to the job force. During all of these changes, many spouses forget to update ...

If your divorce case goes to trial, you'll fare better with an attorney representing you rather than trying the case on your own. When you represent yourself in court, the judge will hold you to the same standards as an attorney, which means you'll need to know how to present evidence, examine ...

Many couples that divorce aren't looking for a huge fight, they just want to come to a settlement that's fair to each spouse and allows both of them to move on with their lives. For these couples, collaborative divorce may be an attractive option, as it can help limit both cost and strife for a d...

If you and your spouse can't agree how to settle all of the issues in your divorce case, a judge (or a jury in some states) will decide those issues for you at a trial. There are a number of issues the court may resolve in your divorce case: whether one spouse will pay the other alimony, how to...

In a divorce, employment information is always relevant. From work schedules and the ability to spend time with the children to income and retirement accounts, employment-related issues affect virtually every decision a court makes. While most spouses are forthcoming about their work, income, and...

During your divorce, your spouse's attorney may want to take your deposition, where you will be required to answer questions under oath for several hours. What you say at a deposition is considered testimony, which can be used in later court proceedings. For many spouses, this is one of the mos...

There may be some divorcing couples that share spreadsheets, which detail everything about their finances, but they're not in the majority. In many marriages, one spouse is primarily responsible for the finances, while the other may have only a vague sense of what the couple earns and owns. Whe...

These days, what you say on Facebook or Twitter can be copied, sent around the world, and get you fired before the day is over. So its no surprise that the things people post online often make their way into divorce and custody cases as well. Social media increasingly plays a role in divorce tod...

Under Georgia law, each parent has a duty to financially support his or her children. This post explains the basics on how child support is calculated in Georgia. In Georgia, child support is calculated by using a formula based on each parent's income. You can estimate child support by enterin...