Divorce
Sadly many marriages end in divorce. Inevitably the only person who benefits from your divorce is your lawyer. In our experience we've found the following common sense tips work to minimise the cost of divorce:
Try to accept the inevitable. If your spouse wants a divorce you will not be able to stop them from getting the divorce granted - you will only succeed in driving up legal costs and prolonging the divorce process.
Be realistic about the division of property. Both parties will want a fair share of any assets that were built up during the duration of the relationship. Divorce will mean that you will not be in the same financial position as you once were. Once you accept that you are 2/3s of the way to settlement.
Both parents must maintain their children. It doesn't help to insist that your spouse pay an astronomical sum of maintainance for Little Johnny when clearly your spouse cannot afford it. Remember that, like you, your spouse has to set up a new household and has all sorts of costs that he or she didn't have while you were married. You will be able to apply to court to vary the maintenance order if it later transpires that your ex can, in fact, afford more maintenance.
Take your attorney's advice. Sometimes "helpful" friends or family members provide you with advice contrary to your lawyer's advice. Generally this is because they believe that they know better because they themselves were divorced or possibly their great-aunt Mabel got divorced once. It is a very BAD IDEA to take anyone's advice that contradicts your attorney. Your attorney is skilled in law and has conducted hundreds of divorces, knows the beat and the tricks that are played.
