Oklahoma City Divorce Attorney - How To Settle Your Divorce And Save Money

With gas prices being so how right now, money is tight.  That being said, if you and your spouse are in a position that you want to move forward with divorce, then take our advice and do not just ‘jump in’.  ‘Jumping in’ to divorce without giving some thought to your ways beforehand is the surest way to waste months of time at the court house and waste thousands of dollars on unnecessary attorney fees.

As you read this article, try to envision yourself at the finish line.  In the world of divorce, the finish line is the day when you and your spouse appear in front of the judge with the signed Final Decree in hand, and you are moments away from getting the divorce finalized.  Can you see it?  Can you see yourself at the finish line?  If yes, then go ahead and ask yourself another couple of questions: ‘How do I get to the finished line?’ and just as important ‘How do I get to the finished line without spending an arm and a leg’?

Getting to the finish line is not always easy.  In fact, the majority of divorces, getting to the finish line is a process.  Before you begin the process, read the rest of this article.  Below is a list of four tips for settling your divorce outside of court.  Our advice is that you read the four tips, familiarize yourself with them, and then implement them into your own divorce situation.  Keep in mind as you are reading, if you are successful at implementing these four tips, you will save money…a lot of money.

Tip #1 – Avoid Surprises.  The early stages of the divorce process are marked with strong feelings of uncertainty and anxiety.  Do not add to those feelings by springing surprises on your spouse.  If you are not sure what constitutes a surprise, here is a list for you: 1) Do not move out of the marital residence without first discussing the matter with your spouse; 2) Do not speak with a divorce attorney without first discussing the matter with your spouse; and 3) Do not file for divorce without first discussing the matter with your spouse.

Tip #2 – Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.  You would be surprised at the number of spouses who move forward with divorce while having zero communication between them.  Take our advice, whenever you and your spouse are not communicating, you will have to contact your attorney to contact the spouses attorney to contact the spouse.  Having the communication go through the attorneys is unnecessary and very expensive.  Even if you and your spouse do not get along that well, so long as you can communicate between yourself and do so in a way that is ‘civil’, avoid running up high attorney fees by communicating directly spouse to spouse.

Tip #3 – Mediate.  Before you ‘lawyer up’ and before your spouse ‘lawyers up’, you and your spouse need to sit down together and discuss the major issues.  Our hope is that whenever you and your spouse do sit down together you will find that 100% resolution is going to be easier to achieve than originally thought.  Whenever you sit down together, discuss the following three major issues: 1) how will the two of you divide the marital property; 2) how will the two of you divide the marital debt; and 3) who will have custody of the children.

Tip #4 – Try To Have An Uncontested Divorce.  Assuming that you and your spouse were successful at implementing Tip #3 above, then all you need in order to finalize the divorce is uncontested divorce paperwork.  Our advice is that if the divorce is complicated, you will want to hire a licensed divorce attorney to draft up the paperwork.  If the divorce is simple, you can just call a divorce paperwork company and pay them a one-time small fee.