A Divorce Lawyer Handles the Business of Separation

A divorce lawyer has a challenging job, in more ways than one. This legal specialty tends to have a negative reputation that is not deserved by most who practice it. Although some who have need of his or her services are looking for a shark who will punish their soon-to-be ex-spouse, the general mission of this attorney is to successfully negotiate the division of lives and property.

In Intolerable Cruelty, the protagonist, Miles Massey, is famous for defending wealthy men against gold-digging women. His "Massey Prenup" is legendary for its ability to protect a wealthier prospective spouse from any risk of a financial predator taking advantage. He is something of a hero for combating the attorneys who try to take his clients for all they are worth. Fiction, however, is not reality.

A divorce lawyer may be the attorney you never want to have to hire, but he or she is the person who can help you through the facts and figures and paperwork of separating two lives. A good attorney will simplify and speed the contractual process so that the parties involved reach a fair agreement, separate from the emotional turmoil of the circumstance.

Weddings are hope and joy and the beginning of a new phase in a couple's life together. Marriages are a fresh commitment every morning and every night; they are all of the ups and downs of life as spouses. Divorces are, unfortunately, the closing of that chapter for a large number of people starting over with a new life as a single person. It often gets lost, and rightly so, that each of these stages - preferably only the first two - is a legal contract. A divorce lawyer walks one through the final negotiations of permanent separation.

A marriage is a contract. One has to apply for a license to get married. One has to have a state-recognized officiant perform the ceremony. The couple, the officiant, and witnesses have to sign the marriage license for it to be filed with the state. Official copies may be obtained from the clerk of courts office. They are used as legal proof so that spouses can update existing accounts and policies. Well over a thousand rights and benefits are granted due to this legal agreement, from shared insurance policies to hospital visitation rights to death benefits.

Obviously, engagements are announced, weddings are thrown, and anniversaries are celebrated for the personal, loving commitment made by two people who choose to spend their lives together. The events themselves are about bringing together the friends and families who have been part of the individual lives that will now be fully joined. The contractual component really is not the point.

If a couple gets divorced, however, the paperwork required becomes much more central to the process. One needs a good divorce lawyer to navigate and assist in that difficult time. Separation is hard enough. An attorney smoothes some of the way.