San Diego Family Law Attorney – (Blog) Getting a Divorce During the Pandemic
Filing for divorce can be a draining process for spouses because of the stress and potential conflict when they disagree on different terms of the divorce. The situation is more difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the government restricted movements and meetings.
However, couples who have settled for divorce after recurring disagreements and other marriage drawbacks must move on. Maneuvering the divorce process during the pandemic could be challenging, especially if you do not have the necessary assistance from an experienced family lawyer.
Finding a family lawyer who can navigate a divorce process, and has beneficial information to offer you is essential, especially during such unprecedented times. With the right attorney by your side, you can weigh your options and determine the best type of divorce process for you and your ex-spouse.
At the San Diego Family Law Attorney, we provide professional family law services to clients who need legal counsel. With our wealth of experience in family law, including handling divorce cases, you can trust us to offer excellent legal services and support. Our pride is seeing you having peace of mind and the satisfaction you need.
Handling the Divorce During a Pandemic
Sometimes, life pushes couples to their wit’s end, causing disputes that result in divorce cases. The pandemic has caused situations where partners decide to split because of their families and well-being. However, it is essential to remember that courts are not prioritizing divorce matters during this period. Your divorce case may take longer than expected before the presiding judge makes a ruling. Thus, it is essential to consider several tips to guide you on preparing for a divorce process during this period without experiencing too much pressure and delays. Below are vital guidelines you could consider when filing for divorce:
- Consider Logistical Details of the Divorce with Your Partner
Scheduling meetings with your spouse to discuss marriage issues is challenging because of the safety restrictions limiting meetings and general movement unless deemed necessary. Consequently, you must discuss several logistics with your partner regarding meeting venues if you want a physical meeting. Moreover, you can explore video call options, whereby meetings can be held online to reduce the hassle of physical movement and search for places that uphold rules like social distancing and frequent hand sanitation.
Nevertheless, you still have to make proper plans concerning the online platforms you intend to use when holding the video calls and create timely reminders that will send out prompt messages to each person before the actual meeting. It would also be best if you remembered to avoid distractions from your children, pets, or other family members in the house during the online sessions.
Therefore, it will be your responsibility to look for professional baby-sitting services for the period you will be held up in the divorce meetings with your spouse, especially if you have younger children in your home. If you have older children in the family, you may have a smoother time, as all you need to do is inform them to remain relatively calm and quiet during the meetings. You can also minimize distractions by working from your bedroom or the study office in your house if you have one.
If you and your partner are not keen on holding video call meetings, you can also consider regular phone calls that can be merged to create conference calls, if more parties must be present during the discussions. Similar to video call arrangements, you and your spouse will need to work on setting reminders that ensure each party joins the calls on time for efficient discussions.
- Consolidate Your Financial Details on Time
A necessary process that forms part of any divorce process is assessing each spouse’s financial information to help agree on fair monetary settlements and responsibilities for each party. In most cases, people focus more on managing their businesses and may forget checking their accounts and assets to update records for review. With online sources of information at your disposal, you can take advantage of the extended free time caused by the pandemic restrictions to review your financial status. Some vital details to check include:
Your Pension Retirement Account
If you are an employee, part of your salary cut goes to your pension account. Pension is a saving scheme to support you financially after you retire from your professional career. For partners to divorce, it is crucial to ensure that each has a reliable pension that could sustain him/her and the children from the marriage, even after retirement.
For example, suppose you and your spouse have young children who need financial support after you retire. In that case, you should prove you have a reliable financial support system to take care of your children and their needs.
Your Tax Return Reports
Paying tax is a statutory requirement for every citizen with a source of income. Failure to pay taxes attracts severe criminal charges of tax evasion and fraud, among others. Therefore, you want to ensure that you and your spouse uphold a satisfactory tax return record that prevents you from undergoing any investigations with the IRS and other authorized bodies who investigate tax crimes.
Moreover, checking on your tax returns serves as proof of your declared income, and will help you settle any disputes that may emerge with your spouse, especially where he/she suspects you of withholding your actual payment. Thus, you need to source all the relevant data before scheduling a meeting with the other party and his/her attorney to ensure that your sources of information are credible enough to settle such disparities.
Shared Assets with Your Spouse
You and your partner may have delved into several investment projects before deciding to divorce. Each spouse could be owning a certain percentile of the investment property. The most common assets that marriage partners own together include real estate and family businesses.
You can check on the agreements drafted before you purchased the investment property or started the company, to help you obtain accurate details on the type of ownership you will have to agree on with your ex-spouse, once the divorce negotiations are finalized.
Moreover, thanks to the technological improvements that currently service you, it is easier to obtain original copies of ownership documents that will reduce the need to visit your partner or other relevant offices. Hence, with proper research and consolidation of important information on asset ownership, you will reduce the friction and disagreements during divorce negotiation meetings.
Information on Your Liabilities
Checking on your liabilities is also crucial before agreeing to divorce negotiation, as it provides you with the required details of your financial position even as your spouse makes several proposals regarding the sharing of assets and other economic interests. Your liabilities include all loans and credit card debts you may have incurred throughout your adult life, including marriage to your spouse. They include house mortgages, loans on car purchases, and the credit card debt you have accumulated. Moreover, if you have children together, their liabilities, including student loans, may also fall on you and your spouse, even when you are divorced.
Researching these liabilities will go a long way in ensuring you do not undertake the responsibility to clear them unfairly, which might occur if you are not keen on going over your records. For example, you need to ensure that you and your spouse have developed a sound and well-established payment system for the house mortgage that will not impose full financial responsibility on one party even after divorce. Ultimately, finding all the required information on your liabilities saves you a lot of time that may be otherwise spent on settling the disputes that may emerge from unclear details.
- Contact Professionals Who Will Support You Through the Divorce Process
Undoubtedly, attempting to settle a divorce case without experienced professionals’ help is cumbersome. Thus, it would help if you considered reaching your family lawyer on time to ensure that he/she is ready to take on your matter and initiate all relevant processes pending the actual meetings. Due to the movement restrictions, you may organize meetings with your attorney online, where you will explain your predicament and request professional counsel on how to handle the divorce process.
Moreover, during such meetings, you can also discuss the difficulties you have faced so far with your research process and request for additional help in sourcing all the required documents to present to the other party before the meetings begin.
Your family lawyer may also conduct consultation sessions on occasion, where he/she will collect the relevant information on your pending divorce, including how long you have been separated, the type of procedure you would prefer, among other things. With enough of these sessions, you will be ready to proceed to the next steps.
It is also necessary to request the services of a professional financial officer who will guide you through considering the correct details involving your assets and liabilities. Before making any arrangements for a negotiation meeting, you want to consider looking into different financial firms that offer services to parties facing divorce.
Not only will the professional’s help reduce the stress of balancing out information on your financial responsibilities, but it will also be beneficial for future reference, as the fiancé officer will keep the records safe for reference after the conclusion of a divorce settlement.
If you were a stay-at-home partner, you could also engage with the professional to help create valid proposals on the distribution of alimony and other financial discharges from your spouse. This way, you will not feel underwhelmed and unprepared as your spouse’s attorney questions your economic participation and contribution throughout the marriage.
Lastly, you will benefit from a professional family counselor’s services who will help you and your family uphold emotional stability. Undergoing a divorce process during an ongoing pandemic is sure to impose a lot of stress, especially on your children, who were used to a different mode of life altogether.
Thus, you can schedule counseling sessions online to help break the news to your children, to ensure that the information does not become a source of anger and confusion for them. The counselor you hire during the divorce process can also provide post-divorce counseling to ensure that all parties are on the same page, and have each other’s best interests in mind. Overall, the divorce will be smoother and more bearable with all the three professionals to reduce the challenges you are bound to experience.
- Explore Different Options for the Divorce Process
Couples who opt for divorce have several options on the table for their use in getting to an amicable separation instead of the common belief that all divorces must undergo litigation in court. Thus, before engaging your partner in a fixed divorce process, please ensure that you research the different procedures available to help you settle for the least stressful process for both of you. Some general types of divorce processes include:
Collaborations
In cases where you and your partner are willing to combine efforts and conclude the divorce without too many disparities, the collaboration will work correctly. In this system, you and your spouses’ attorneys will negotiate and agree on each party’s best settlements. Some matters for determination include child custody and visitation rights and alimony fees paid to one partner by the other.
Hence, a collaborative process must also involve a financial officer to help obtain accurate figures and estimates on each spouse’s financial position. Ideally, the financial officer should be independent to ensure that one partner does not undertake a larger percentage of financial responsibilities. At the same time, both parties can sustain their families with equal contributions.
Mediated Negotiations
When you opt for a mediated process, you will involve a neutral third party to handle discussions between you, your spouse, and your attorneys for a reasonable and fair settlement. Having your lawyer present ensures that he/she provides enough support and guidance to help you remain knowledgeable of the nature of the negotiations you involve yourself in.
Litigation
Usually, litigation is a last-resort option for spouses undergoing a divorce process, especially where reaching an agreement that satisfies both parties has been difficult. Consequently, the spouses may move the matter to court by filing for a divorce case that will be handled by the judge. In most cases, litigation arises where both spouses want custody of the children, or one spouse denies the other shared custody.
Litigation is also the best option if you are a domestic abuse victim and would like to apply for restraining orders or emergency protective orders, even as the divorce settlements continue. With such urges in consideration, the presiding judge will be keen to ensure that your applications are attended to promptly, mainly because you and your family may be in danger based on your spouse’s previous behavior.
Exclusive Engagements Between Lawyers
Alternatively, you may choose to avoid litigation and let your lawyer handle the matter for you, such that you will not have contact or communication with your spouse directly. Opting for this type of divorce involves your lawyer working with the other person’s attorney to reach an agreement that is fair for you two, without pitting the two divorcing parties against each other. Thus, your lawyer will advise you not to disclose any information about developments made to the divorce matter to your spouse, including the lawyers’ issues during their engagements. In doing so, you will avoid disclosing information that may rub your partner the wrong way and result in severe disagreements that may take longer to resolve and delay the divorce process.
- Remain Considerate Throughout the Process
We may often be caught up in upholding our interests and forget about our spouses’ and children’s needs, even as you prepare to separate officially through a divorce. However, it would help if you remained patient, compassionate, and considerate of the other party’s position during the divorce, mainly because of the problematic pandemic and its effects so far.
Therefore, it is always best to reach out to your spouse where you can and inform him/her about the ongoing process and your views on other developments. This way, you extend your support to the person and show a willingness to work together in finalizing the divorce with minimal difficulties.
Find a Family Lawyer Near Me
The COVID-19 has disrupted many spouses’ lives, forcing them to tolerate situations they would otherwise solve if the pandemic didn’t exist. Nevertheless, you can seek solutions and work towards your divorce successfully with skilled family lawyers. They are adapting to the changing world and are capable of providing professional guidance for your divorce during this period.
At the San Diego Family Law Attorney, we provide the best legal services to our San Diego clients and support them through challenging divorce processes. We believe in getting you the most favorable outcome while upholding amicability between you and your ex-spouse. To talk to a divorce lawyer, call today at 619-610-7425.