Once you have chosen the process, and have considered the costs and time involved with each approach, its time to get your financial documentation in order.
Through divorce the parties have to disclose or exchange all of their financial information with each other. Bank statements, property appraisals, 3 years of tax returns, credit card statements, household bills, medical bills, retirement account information, and all of employment benefits information, to name a few of the documents.
Taking the time to properly collect and organize this information along with completing your financial statement with the greatest amount of detail and accuracy saves an enormous amount of time later in the process. The details of your financial situation and needs, helps your attorney or the mediator make better decision on your behalf when negotiating a settlement.
So many of my clients waste time and money in this part of their case as the information is scattered, out of order, and incomplete. Paying your divorce lawyer to go through everything again and again – instead of just once, if you took the time to properly prepare your disclosures- could cost a lot of money unnecessarily.
The courts allow up to 6 weeks after you file the petition for dissolution to gather and exchange this information, these matters need to be in order before you decide to file for divorce. It saves time and if temporary orders are going to be necessary or how expenses should be shared while you divide your house hold.
2. THINK ABOUT BEING RESOURCEFUL
In divorce 3 things that exacerbate the costs of the divorce: a) litigating parental responsibilities; b) litigating property values and c) not getting to the point of resolve.
IF there are disputes regarding the parental responsibility issues, don’t fight about it through lawyers – we can takes facts either way and argue for or against them but that doesn’t help your children. To have a parental responsibility evaluator (PRE) or child family investigator (CFI) can cost anywhere from $2000.00 to $10,000.00 or More!
The cost for a family to meet with a counselor and have a few sessions with the children and the parents can be as little as $75.00 an hour and will benefit the family in many more ways than a PRE or CFI report. This often leads to recommendations neither party is happy to have as a parenting plan. It’s your family you should be making the decisions. You can get the professional assistance and recommendations together instead of posturing everything for trial.
IF there are property value issues, agree on a realtor who can assess comparable sales prices for the area for free or agree on an appraiser and share the cost. There are also business appraisers if a family business is involved.
IF you have parenting recommendations and you have property values, lock yourselves in with a mediator and work it out. I always tell my clients that any agreement you can come to that is reasonable will be better than fighting about it in court without any guarantee of the result. Some courts have people waiting as much as a year to get a hearing date. You need to get to a point of resolve to save costs.
Of course it takes both parties to want to handle the process in the most effective and least expensive way, but knowledge is key.
Check out 2 other cost saving Divorce Ideas
