A divorce consultation checklist is good tool to help you prepare for a divorce.  A divorce consultation is all about information you need to provide the divorce lawyer, not necessarily about documents. A useful divorce consultation checklist will address financial information as well as issues related to children that you should be ready to discuss.

The idea here is for you to discuss finances and issues that you you must address. It is also a good tool to explore areas you may not have thought about.

Property and Financial Information in a Divorce

The financial side of your divorce is all about dividing the property accumulated during the marriage. It may also have to do with property either of you may have brought into the marriage, which you or your spouse may still have.

If there are going to be questions about alimony or child support, then it will also involve your current income, as well as that of your spouse.

If you have a prenuptial agreement, that document will be important for you to provide at the time of a consultation. You do not need to provide an original, a copy will be sufficient.  This is about the only document that you should bring with you to a consultation.

Property (assets) in a divorce is anything that you can own—whether it is owned in your name alone, in your spouse’s name alone or in joint names. 

Types of Property in a Divorce

Real property is usually what most people think about when they hear the word “property.”  But property also includes the following:

• bank accounts, such as checking, savings, certificates of deposit, money markets, etc.
• stocks and stock options
• bonds
• vehicles that are financed (not leased)
• boats, RVs, jet skis
• cash value in a life insurance
• money that someone owes you
• Retirement plans, such as profit sharing, pensions, IRAs, 401(ks), etc.
• Investment accounts that are not for retirement
• furniture in a home
• Royalties
• Business interests
• Disability income

For purposes of a divorce in Florida, bank accounts are not just those accounts in your name alone, or in joint names with your spouse; but also includes accounts in your name and someone else’s name (other than your spouse).  Understand that this doesn’t necessarily mean that your spouse may have an interest in accounts held in your name and someone else (for example, a parent)—we are merely discussing what assets are titled in your name which may or may not be impacted by the divorce.

In addition to information on the above, you should be ready to provide information about tax filings: whether you and your spouse file jointly or as married filing separate.  If income has changed since the last tax filing, you should also be ready to discuss details.

Debt Information in a Divorce

As with property, you need to have an idea of what debt there is and how it is titled—in this case, who is responsible to the creditors for payment.

Similarly, it doesn’t matter that the debt is in your name, joint with your spouse or in your spouse’s name alone.  If the debt is only in your spouse’s name, you may not have access to the amount, repayment terms, etc., which is okay.  The important thing is that you know it exists and you can tell the divorce attorney about it.

Debt includes the following:

• Mortgages, including second mortgages on the marital home
• Credit card accounts
• For vehicles, financed documents or lease documents
• Personal loans
• Money you owe but for which there is no document (like a loan from a relative)
• Judgments against you which say you owe money to someone else
• Loans you make have taken out against your retirement accounts
• Tax debts
• Business debt that you may owe, for example, if you own a business and co-signed for a loan for the business

Information about Children’s Issues

Each family is unique, so it is impossible to provide a list of every single issue that a family may face when they are about to go through a divorce.

Generally speaking, you should be ready to provide the attorney with a description of how each of you parent your children, both individually and jointly. This information would include how you divide the daily responsibility for caring for the children, taking your children to school (if of school age), participation in taking them to doctor’s appointments; how each of you discipline the children; what special issues your children may have, whether physical or otherwise, etc.

It is also a good idea to provide your attorney with your view of how each child relates to each of you.

If you and your spouse have already talked about a divorce, be ready to tell the attorney what discussions you’ve had regarding timesharing with the children in the event you do decide to go through the divorce.

If you have not discussed divorce, tell the attorney what you would like to see in terms of timesharing and why—what you want may be doable, but the attorney should discuss the possibility of you getting what you want within the current law regarding parental responsibility and timesharing.

Your Emotional Well-being

While we divorce lawyers are not therapists, we are nevertheless mindful that a divorce will impact our clients’ emotional wellbeing, at least in the short-term. Depending on where you find yourself in terms of accepting the divorce, your emotional condition may influence the divorce process to varying degrees.

Unresolved emotional issues may influence your ability to make decisions about children, property and debt within the facts of their case and the applicable law.  By way of example, some parents (fathers OR mothers) do not want their children to be around any future significant others of the other parent at any time. Depending on the circumstances, this position is most often not a realistic one.

Of course, the same applies to your spouse: their emotional condition and attitude towards getting a divorce will impact them and you as the divorce proceeds.

If there is a history of domestic violence, be prepared to tell the attorney.  However, depending on how you describe your relationship with your spouse, the attorney will most likely ask you about it.

Questions for your Divorce Lawyer

With all of the information above, you are ready to meet with a lawyer.  You can meet with a lawyer with very little of the above information.  But the consultation may not be as useful to you because you are not providing factual information that the lawyer can work with to provide you an overview of likely outcomes.

Some people do research for their divorce by a combination of a google search and talking to their friends and families about their own divorce.

There is a mix of information online, depending on the slant of the actual information you read.  Additionally, the experience of your family and friends in a divorce is not going to be the same for you—you and your spouse are unique as a couple, so whatever results your friends and families obtained is not going to be the rule for your own situation.

To prepare for a divorce consultation, you first should find out how long the consultation will last.  Some divorce attorneys provide 15-30 minutes consultation; other provide a longer one.

In addition, you should also start writing down questions that you want answers to—there is no such thing as a stupid questions, there is the question you have for which you need an answer.  So, write them down as you think about them, do not wait to be sitting in front of the attorney to come up with them.

Conclusion

This checklist may seem like quite a lot of work.  Contested divorces are in fact quite a lot of work for everyone involved.  It is better to be prepared from the start, and to know what are the possible outcomes.

If you anticipate a contested divorce and would like information about your individual case, you can set up a Case Assessment Session with me using this link, or calling me at 305-710-9419.