Divorce is complicated, difficult, stressful, and expensive. If you are facing a divorce, the best path forward is with an experienced Killeen divorce attorney. Having professional legal counsel helps to ensure that your rights are well protected throughout the divorce process. The fact is that the outcome of your divorce will significantly affect you and your children’s financial future, and it is far too important to leave to chance. While attorney fees can seem to add up quickly, there are specific steps that you can take to help maximize the legal guidance you receive while minimizing the time your lawyer spends working on your case – potentially saving you thousands of dollars.
Prioritize Your Goals
Every divorce is unique to the divorcing couple involved. Nevertheless, there are certain important components that universally apply, including:
- A determination regarding child custody and child support arrangements
- A determination regarding the division of marital property
- A determination regarding spousal maintenance
If you have children, your primary concern is naturally their ongoing well-being and happiness. If your goal is to be the primary custodial parent (the parent with whom your children primarily live), this is likely your top priority, and it is important to share this information with your attorney. When you make your priorities clear – whatever they may be – it helps your attorney streamline his or her work.
Organize Your Documents
The division of marital property is an important component of every divorce, and yours will likely hinge on the documentation of your financial affairs – both assets and debts. If you take the time to gather and organize those documents ahead of time, it will provide your divorce attorney with an informative snapshot of the finances he or she will be working with moving forward. This can save a good deal of legal time – time that is often eaten up when financial documents are delivered in a piecemeal fashion.
Share All Pertinent Information
To adequately protect your rights and advocate for an outcome that works for you and your children, your divorce attorney needs to know all the information pertinent to your case. This includes information that you think may reflect poorly on you. Once your attorney understands the facts as they relate to your divorce, he or she will be that much better prepared to build your strongest case and to mitigate any potential damage. The more thorough, organized, and streamlined you are with your presentation of pertinent information, the less time your attorney will need to spend gathering and processing that information.