The Importance of Working With A Divorce Attorney

3 Things You'll Likely Disagree About During a Divorce

If the decision to get divorced was hard enough as it is, you'll find that negotiating the terms of your divorce is going to be just as difficult. That is because there are many big decisions that need to be made during a divorce, which can hopefully be sorted out in mediation. Be prepared to work hard on coming to an agreement on the following three things.

Your House

If you two own property together, you'll need to figure out what will happen with it after the divorce. There has likely been equity paid into the home for many years, which makes the decision harder than you think. That is why many couples decide to sell the home and split the profits—it simplifies everything about the process.

However, there are other options available. If one person is looking to keep the home, know that it can be refinanced to get the equity out of the home to be split between both partners. You can also determine how much equity is in the home, split that amount, and have the person living in the home pay off the balance.

Your divorce attorney can come up with a technique that will work for you when dividing the home.

Your Debts

Debts can be tricky when they are from joint decisions made during a marriage. Thankfully, there are laws at the state level that determine who will be responsible for paying certain debts. Things like credit card debt for joint purchases could be split between both parties, but things like student loans may be the responsibility of the person that received them. That is because student loans are typically assigned to a single person, no matter if the loan was taken out before or during the marriage.

Thankfully, a divorce lawyer can walk you through what could happen with the various debts that you have and advise you on how to deal with them.

Your Spousal Support

It is likely that one person will owe the other spousal support after the divorce, and coming up with a dollar figure will be a point of contention during mediation. There are some formulas that can be used to determine what would be a fair amount for spousal support, which helps create a good starting point for a discussion. While spousal support typically ends when the party receiving it remarries, you can also set a date on which support will end.


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