Top 5 things to prepare for your San Diego Divorce Lawyer
One common question that we get is “what should I bring to my first meeting with my attorney?”
1. Questions
During the divorce process, it is key to keep yourself informed about the divorce proceedings. Any time you are confused or just want more information about the process, don’t be afraid to ask your attorney questions. At your first meeting, feel free to ask questions about the timing, scope, and process of the divorce.
Some common questions we get include:
1. Do you think I’ll need to pay alimony?
2. How does the court figure out child custody?
3. How long is this going to take?
4. Will I need to testify in court?
The more you understand the process and the more we understand your goals, the better we can tailor the process to meet your needs.
2. A Plan
With that in mind, it is important that you spend some time thinking about what you want to accomplish through this divorce. Many people come into our office with the sole goal of punishing their spouse. While that feeling is understandable, it is not likely to be the best course – especially when it is weighed against the competing goals of helping you move on or keeping custody of your children. Be prepared to talk about what goals you’d like to set for the divorce.
3. Financial Documents
Once we have a good idea of your goals, we’ll need to get down to the business of analyzing your assets, liabilities, and property. This task is made much easier if you come prepared with your financial documents in order. Make a list of your assets, liabilities, and property, then go hunt down the documents in each category. If you come with tax returns, mortgage statements, retirement account balances, and other financial documents, it’ll decrease the amount of time we spend sorting those documents for you.
4. Personal Documents
Along with financial documents, bring personal documents to help paint a picture of the relationship for the court. Write down a timeline of your relationship with important dates like when you were married, had your first child, bought a home, etc. If you need to document certain negative behavior, such as substance abuse or domestic violence, start thinking about how you will collect evidence like email, letters, and potential witnesses. If you have already started to collect that information, this would be a good time to pull it out, organize it, and make copies of it if you fear it may disappear.
5. Candor
Finally, remember, we’re here to help you. In order for us to do our best work we need all your information. It’s extremely important to let us guide the strategy given all your facts. Too many times clients withhold information thinking it’s not pertinent to their case. They often think by not disclosing it to their attorney they are helping themselves, but 99% of the time that information eventually comes out which leads to damage control. This ultimately results in a more costly and potentially less successful outcome. The upshot is to be as open as you can so we can help you.