3 Reasons You Need To Hire An Attorney For Your Divorce

When your spouse is becoming difficult to work with early on in the divorce proceedings, it is a sign that you should be hiring a divorce attorney to help you. They will be able to assist in the following 3 areas, making everything go as smoothly as possible:

Dividing Your Assets

Deciding how you and your spouse will be dividing assets can be very tricky. There are some aspects of the division of assets that is actually decided by your state laws, and are pretty straightforward. For example, it may be the law that assets are divided 50/50 between the two of you.

The problem is when you have to deal with other factors that challenge asset ownership. Even if you created a prenuptial agreement that protected your assets that you brought into the marriage, your spouse could still try to go after those assets.

This is often done by challenging the validity of the agreement, or arguing that an individual asset became a joint asset over time. This often happens with a home that one person owned prior to the marriage, but both spouses put significant time and money into remodeling the house after they were married.

Dividing Your Debts

It is common for debts acquired throughout a marriage to be equally divided between both partners. This includes debts that one person is primarily responsible for, such as individual credit card debt or student loans.

You may need help when debts occur after a marriage fails. Your spouse could have charged large purchases to a credit card, knowing you would eventually be responsible for 50% of it. You shouldn't have to pay these debts if they were created in a manner that was intended to be deceitful.

Deciding Child Visitation And Custody

Divorce proceedings often turn ugly when there are children involved. Your spouse may have strong feelings about custody and visitation rights, and attack your character in the process of trying to get their way. When this happens, you will need all the help you can get in order to see your children.

A divorce attorney will help you neutralize those attacks, and gather evidence that will help support your case. Some examples of evidence include:

• journals that record how involved you are with your children.
• testimonials from friends and family.
• a family budget to prove you can be a provider on your own based on employment and salary history.

By hiring a divorce attorney, you'll definitely have a leg up on your divorce proceedings that can help decide some crucial decisions.