Perhaps your marriage is just not working anymore, and if there are children involved, it may be even more complicated with your soon-to-be former spouse. Once you have made the decision to divorce, the next obstacle to overcome is which attorney you should hire to handle your divorce. You may find that the decision about which attorney to choose is anything but simple.
Just like there are seasons in the fashion world, in television and in sports, interestingly (and perhaps surprisingly), there are also seasons when it comes to divorce. From the perspective of the attorneys in practice, they need to mentally and physically prepare for those seasons because the work will increase so much that they need to make sure that they are at their best when the seasons are upon them.
When are the divorce seasons?
The two times of the year when the greatest number of people hire divorce attorneys are at the end of the summer (when the children return to school) and right after the holidays at the very beginning of the next year. If you have arrived at the difficult decision to divorce your spouse, before you actually reach out to any attorney to start the divorce process, you should seriously consider taking the following step so that you will be well prepared once you start the process.
- Familiarize yourself with the Colorado state court website: The state court system (in Colorado or any of the other states) will probably prove to be less than user-friendly so the more acquainted you become with the information, the better off you will be once you actually sit down with an attorney and start the divorce process.
- Gather your financial documents: In divorces, absolutely everything financial will be scrutinized. It is a really good idea to make an inventory of your present assets, income, debt, and all of your major expenses. When a couple is in the process of divorcing in Colorado, they have 42 days from the beginning of the process to hand over all of their financial information to each other. You may very well find that it is not easy to gather all of that information. It is also a good idea to bring tax returns from the last three years, if you can get your hands on those. This will help your attorney to get a quick understanding of your finances.
- Create a reasonable budget that you will be able to maintain: Getting a divorce will not be an inexpensive experience. You can think of your finances as doubling because the money that you and your spouse have will now need to support you separately since you will most likely not be living together. When you create your budget, make sure to include the money that you will need while you are going through the divorce and after the divorce is final. There are many things that you will need to include in your budget, such as court fees, parenting class costs, and other divorce-related costs.
- Consider hiring a therapist or mental health professional: When you go through a divorce, many different emotions are involved and it may help you a great deal to speak with a professional to get those feelings out so that they don’t fester and eventually harm you and those close to you. It may take you a little while to find the right therapist. You will not want to settle for just any therapist. You will want the therapist that particularly suits your needs and helps you in the way that you need.
- Try not to use social media: Posting things on social media may end up hurting you even though whatever you are posting may be seemingly innocent. It is important to keep in mind that whatever you post on social media will be out in cyberspace forever so if you do something in anger or frustration, you can’t ever take it back and you may very well regret that you ever posted anything. You certainly don’t want to give your spouse the upper hand.
- Think about what your life will be like after your divorce: If you have come to the decision that divorce is the only answer for you, hopefully, it was a decision that you did not make in haste. If you have thought long and hard and you are sure that this is what you want, you should be fine. Just like marriage, divorce will require a great deal of compromise and it will not only affect you but it will also affect your children and possibly your ex-spouse. You want to do everything possible to be happy in your new life.
Solid advice from an experience Colorado divorce attorney
Once you have taken all of the necessary steps before starting the divorce process, it will be time to choose an experienced and knowledgeable Colorado divorce attorney. You may have worked for many years and have accumulated many valuable assets in your life with your spouse. Those assets may make your divorce complicated so having the right advice can help you to hopefully ensure that things run smoothly so that your life after divorce will be positive and successful going forward.