Divorce is often a messy affair. Yes, most people don’t go into marriage planning to get divorced. The usual dream is to live happily ever after. At least, that’s what it used to be. But, well, if you’ve found yourself in a situation where you have to deal with a divorce, what’s the best way to handle it?
By “handle it”, we are looking at whether you should handle the process on your own or whether you should engage the services of a divorce attorney. We believe you’d be best served if you go for a professional that operates locally. For example, an experienced Dayton divorce attorney will be a better option if you live in that area.
The following are some reasons why we make this recommendation:
You Get the Benefits of an Expert’s Direction
With the way the world has gone, you could either be given much less than you deserve or have to pay much more than you should. Add the challenge of child custody and other legal details and you will see that you are NOT in any way prepared to get what’s best for yourself and your kids without the advice of a good lawyer.
A good lawyer will ensure he/she protects your interests whether it has to do with spousal support or payments, child custody, sharing assets or liabilities and so on.
You don’t want to sign agreements without knowing the full implications. You don’t want to misrepresent what you want to the court either. They could leave you in regrets for the rest of your life. So we believe it’s a little price to pay to have someone who understands all the legal nuances of the situation on your side.
You’d Have Less Stress To Deal With
Divorce is a stressful event on its own. And that’s assuming that you have the rare experience of one that isn’t full of acrimony. Now if you’re less fortunate and the parties come to the table with a lot of resentment, you’d be better served having people who are less emotionally invested handling the process for you.
Life continues after so you don’t want to burn yourself out so much emotionally that you’d be a nervous wreck after a divorce.
Apart from the emotionally charged situations, you’d still have a job, kids, friends and so on to deal with. Having a good attorney means all you have to do is provide them with the information they need to work and then they handle all the legalities for you. Click here to read more on how to handle divorce stress.
You’re Less Likely To Make a Costly Mistake
Unless you’ve been divorced several times before and have created a super effective checklist, the emotional experience is likely to make you forget, ignore or underestimate the importance of certain matters. A good attorney will call your attention to everything you need to address and things you should place a high priority on.
You might be so pissed with your ex that you just want them out of your life – Or, so you think. An experienced expert knows that your charged emotions are doing the talking and that what you might be willing to readily concede would prove too costly just a few years down the road.
With a calm, experienced mind by you, you run a lower risk of making a costly mistake.
Creating Agreements That Are Easy To Enforce
The first thing that determines how easily enforceable an agreement is, is how clear the agreement is, in the first place. If the wordings are ambiguous, the other party can choose to re-interpret it in a way that would be more favorable to them at a later date.
A good attorney is trained to look out for ambiguous wordings and re-word them in such a way that your agreements are clear in their meanings. This means that what you wish to see in the agreement is started that way and cannot be explained any other way in the future.
If you do it yourself, you may end up using words that will open the door to confusion and you see yourself dealing with avoidable issues in the future. Visit https://www.gatekeeperhq.com/blog/introduction-to-contract-ambiguity-and-obscurity to see the effect of ambiguity in contracts so you’ll see the importance of avoiding this mistake.
You’ll Be Avoiding Unnecessary Delays
Yes, you can get and file your own divorce papers yourself. However, the details you need to provide have to meet certain specifications. If you fill the forms or papers incorrectly, you’d have to do them again before filing your papers. This will invariably delay proceedings and, as a consequence, delay the date you’re able to finalize your divorce.
Furthermore, you’d probably waste a few precious hours ensuring you’ve understood the legal jargons that you might come across.
But if you use a good attorney, all you have to do is explain what you want, answer the questions they may have for you and your papers would be filed correctly.
Conclusion
This isn’t what you planned for while you tied the nuptial knot. But as it is, you know that you’re getting a divorce. It’s important that you take the right steps to ensure that you don’t suffer more pains than the situation has already created by having an expert by your side — Get an experienced attorney.
