Baltimore’s Best Divorce Lawyer
Sep 25th, 2008 by Thulas Sukati
Whether you have received notification of your spouse’s desire for a divorce via her attorney, you should seriously consider arranging a divorce lawyer of your own. This is not so much for the complexities of the filing and paperwork that will need to be done, but more so from the aspect of protecting yourself. You are also likely to have many questions about possible outcomes and how they will affect you and a good divorce lawyer can answer those questions and put you in a much more advantageous position in the divorce proceedings.
We may hope that the divorce will be settled in a friendly manner but often even if they start out this way, things change and a divorce lawyer is there to make sure that assets are divided fairly. Although you are at liberty to represent yourself, this is an emotional time when you would be best served by a professional divorce attorney and in particular when children are involved as well as assets as feelings run high and just make the situation worse.
We all know that some state divorce laws are stranger and tougher than others so make sure your divorce lawyer is aware of local divorce laws before you hire them. The divorce lawyer will also be able to help if financial support is required by law; also called alimony.
Other than the problems faced with children, alimony is the next worst aspect of a divorce and is worked out on how much each partner needs to carry on with the standard of living they were experiencing before the split based on their earnings. Another problem with alimony is how long it is payable and while it usually has a set date to finish, it does not have to and a spouse may be told they will be paying it for an indefinite period.
The amount of alimony paid is not set in stone and allowances can be made, if either the spouse paying or the spouse receiving the alimony finds that their financial status worsens. It is worth remembering that if a spouse receiving alimony should decide to have it stopped at any time, they cannot at a later stage ask for it to be reinstated.
Of course a divorce lawyer is also there to help protect the pension rights of the spouse he represents as these can be vulnerable in a divorce case. These are typically considered ‘marital property’ and can be divided during a divorce.
The courts do try to be fair with their division of retirement plans and pensions but having a divorce lawyer represent you will help ensure this is the case. With the amounts of money tied up in pension plans nowadays, this one point of the divorce will more than pay for the divorce lawyers time.
