Divorce Lawyer Syracuse, UT
If you’re planning to get a divorce, you may want to consult a divorce lawyer Syracuse, UT residents trust. A divorce is a complicated matter and you don’t want to go through it alone. An experienced lawyer can guide you through the process and prevent you from making costly mistakes.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in a Divorce
A divorce is never a walk in the park, but people may do certain things to complicate the process even more. Here are a few common mistakes you should avoid during your divorce.
- Refusing compromise. In a divorce, you rarely can have it all. You will likely have to compromise on various matters. Otherwise, you will just drag out the process and spend more money. It’s better to reach a settlement with your ex instead of having a judge decide your fate.
- Getting into a new relationship. When you’re going through a divorce, it’s understandable that you may feel lonely and want to start dating. However, it generally isn’t a good idea to get into a new relationship during divorce proceedings. If your ex finds out that you’re dating, he or she may become jealous and try to drag out the process. Additionally, you should take this time to concentrate on your case and take good care of yourself. Getting into a new relationship may complicate your life more.
- Moving forward without a lawyer. Some people attempt to handle their divorce on their own to save on legal fees. However, it’s in your best interest to work with a Syracuse divorce lawyer. As mentioned above, a divorce can involve many complexities and you don’t want to make mistakes. An experienced lawyer will look out for your best interests and improve your chance of getting a fair settlement.
- Letting your anger get the best of you. It’s normal to feel angry during a divorce. However, you can’t allow your anger to control you and cause you to make poor decisions. When you feel angry or upset, don’t react. Instead, take a moment to calm down and talk about your feelings with your lawyer or a therapist.
- Putting your children in the middle. Divorces can be especially difficult on children. Unfortunately, some parents use their children as pawns during a divorce. Doing this can cause children more emotional pain and make them resent you. As such, you should never put them in the middle or put them against your ex.
- Attempting to hide marital assets. When you start divorce proceedings, the court will require you to disclose all of your marital assets. Even if you don’t feel that your ex does not deserve certain assets, you still have to be honest about your assets. If you attempt to hide them, you can lose credibility and not receive a fair settlement. The court may also decide to press criminal charges.
Is Your Spouse Hiding Assets?
A Syracuse, UT divorce lawyer knows that property division is a major concern in divorce — especially in a divorce without custody issues. In order for the court to perform a fair and equitable property division, it needs to have a clear picture of all of the assets in the marital estate. To help with this, the courts require spouses to disclose marital assets. This is done under penalties of perjury.
While most spouses do this honestly, there are spouses who will look for ways to hide assets in order to prohibit a fair distribution of the marital estate. The most common methods of hiding assets are by making their income appear smaller than it is or making their expenses look larger. The following are some of the more common ways this hiding of assets takes place.
Employer Assistance
A spouse can conceal income in a variety of different manners. One of the most common is by coordinating with their own employer. If a spouse knows that he or she is due for a raise or a large commission, then they can talk to their boss to have the company put off the receipt of these assets until after the divorce is finalized. This lets them keep the extra money out of the eyes of the court and out of the hands of their soon-to-be ex.
Taxes
Spouses can also hide money by doing taxes in certain ways. If a spouse wants to keep money out of the divorce, then they can overpay their taxes. When the time comes for a refund, the spouse can choose to forgo a tax refund, and instead, use the money as a credit against future taxes. This way, rather than dividing up the refund in the divorce, the spouse can keep it all for themselves and make it back by saving money the next year on their taxes.
The easiest way to combat this tactic is to make sure to properly scrutinize all tax returns to see if there is money missing. Your Syracuse divorce lawyer will often use financial experts, such as forensic accountants, to look over the spouse’s financial records to see if they find these types of discrepancies.
Inflating Expenses
Another other common way to hide income is to make it look like there is more money going out of the marriage than there actually is, and then pocket the difference. The most straightforward of these strategies is to drain small amounts of money from joint accounts and then hide it in an account the other spouse is not aware of. However, bank accounts can often be tracked down, so simple diligence can usually defeat this strategy.
“Friendly Loans”
More sophisticated spouses pull money out of accounts and “loan” it to friends for safekeeping. This trick is a bit harder to spot but watch out for large withdrawals from bank accounts that go unaccounted for can often be the simplest way of spotting this form of concealment. A Syracuse divorce lawyer will conduct financial investigations whenever these types of red flags appear.
Schedule a consultation with a Syracuse divorce lawyer from Felt Family Law & Mediation to discuss your case in detail.
Tips For Divorce Mediation
If you are reading this, then chances are your divorce has been referred to mediation or you are at least considering it, and may need help from a Syracuse, UT divorce lawyer from Felt Family Law & Mediation. Perhaps you and your spouse both want to avoid the grueling and lengthy litigation that can happen during divorce. By committing to the process of mediation, you are making the most of your energy, time, and money. Here are some mediation tips to consider as you go through your divorce process.
- Know what your priorities are. One of the most important elements of any successful divorce mediation is to already know what your goals are. Think about what aspects of the divorce are your highest priority, and what areas you are willing to be flexible on. By knowing your priorities ahead of time, you are better able to consider all the settlement options before you. It can also help to seriously assess your spouse’s expressed priorities, which may be the same or different from yours.
- Know what is reasonable when it comes to property division. The mediation process will go over the marital estate you and your spouse have accumulated overtime together. To know if the property division requests are reasonable, you will need to be privy to the value of your marital property and potential liabilities if there are any. As your Syracuse divorce lawyer would suggest, write down a list of your largest assets along with their worth, and household debts. Examples of property and debts that may be discussed during mediation include your home, other real estate, retirement accounts, vehicles, bank accounts, life insurance, collectibles, furniture, medical debts, recreational items (boats, watercrafts, off-road vehicles, RVs), student loans, and medical debts, among others.
- Have a checklist for unique issues to be discussed. Every family unit is different, and will have varying topics that have to be negotiated. Divorce mediation will have many common topics that apply to most spouses, but there may be others that are important to your family specifically, such as insurance coverage for a dependent spouse, business interests, mortgage refinancing, health issues for children, special education, and more. Bring your checklist for anything you absolutely want to talk about during meditation so that you don’t forget. Your mediator can ensure that your checklist items are addressed.
- Remember that emotions are normal. Divorce is not going to be easy for anyone, regardless of how amicable the situation is. There will be difficult emotions that come up and are hard to deal with, especially as you discuss divorce topics with your spouse over mediation. There will be grief, sadness, frustration, and maybe some regret too. These are all healthy, and there is no shame in feeling them. Your emotions can coexist with you as you have discussions over mediation, and just do your best to focus on the topics at hand.
For further help during your divorce mediation or other divorce-related steps, don’t hesitate to contact a Syracuse divorce lawyer from our law firm today.
