Divorce Advice for Men

Women are far better at managing the legal aspect of ending a marriage than men. For whatever reason, men are usually the one’s feeling that their divorce is not going well. It is not hard, however, to make a far better case for yourself. Here are a number of steps that men can take to make sure that they have a more successful case.

One of the worst things to do is to move out of the family home prior to the divorce petition or proceeding commencing. It is crucial to maintain contact with your children and show a judge that you really want to continue living in the house. (Obviously, do not put yourself in a position in which you will be subject to violence, though.) If you are easily able to move on, a court can find it much easier to grant your spouse you former home.

It is a bad idea to allow your wife to file first and to hire a lawyer that does not represent how you would like the case to go. There are a number of very important orders that are usually requested as part of a family breakup that are often granted without even hearing your side. The strength of an initial filing can be sufficient alone. Also, your divorce attorney should have similar priorities to you regarding your case. Your lawyer should be able to grasp fundamentally how your situation will be resolved and should then be able to push for areas that are important to you.

Make sure that you tell your lawyer everything that your spouse could say bad about you. This is not pleasant to do, but your attorney will be able to come up with explanations for why you did certain things if they are aware about it ahead of time. Your case will suffer tremendously, if you have no response to negative allegations said about you during trial.

Do not give very much information to your wife. While you used to be a couple, you are now in what could become a very adversarial proceeding. Phone records, text messages, emails, internet postings are all discoverable, and your wife will most likely turn these over to her attorney to be used against you. You do not want these brought up in court.

It is crucial that you take an active role in your case. Your divorce attorney does not know what facts you have until you tell this to him or her. Your attorney can only ask lots of questions to try to solicit as much information as possible from you, but if anything is left out you must tell your lawyer everything that could affect your wife’s arguments. Also, make sure that you are prepared for trial by going over with your attorney what types of questions you will be asked.

The above material is intended for information purposes only. It is not intended as professional legal advice and should not be construed as such. Attorney William H. Beaumont practices in New Orleans, La.