Whether or not to end your marriage is one of the most important and difficult life decisions. While divorce is most often an emotional matter, keeping a level head and thinking analytically can actually help your perspective and create positive momentum.
Divorce is a decision that should take into account numerous issues. Review the following list of questions with your ultimate goal in mind. If making or following through your decisions is something you are not able to do alone, consider enlisting the help of an experienced and qualified family law attorney. Contact us to discuss your divorce with a caring lawyer.
Children
- Will your children live with you or your former spouse?
- If the children live with your former spouse, how often do you hope to see them?
- Will you and your ex-spouse be able to agree on the children’s health care and education?
- Who will pay for the children’s living expenses, education and travel?
Support Payments
- What do you know about spousal support and child support?
- Will the spousal support or child support increase or decrease in the future due to changing financial circumstances, salary changes, job loss, promotion or other factors?
- Who will be entitled to claim the children as exemptions for income tax purposes?
Your Home
- Which of you will keep or live in the house during the divorce process?
- If you sell the house, how will the proceeds be divided?
- If one party keeps the home, will the other party deed its interest to the first party?
- Will you both be involved in the sale and closing? Who will decide the listing price and whether a real estate broker will sell the home?
- How will you decide who pays for the cost of repairs before or while the house is on the market or when the house sells?
- Which of you gets to deduct the mortgage interest charges and property taxes?
- Which of you will pay the capital gains taxes?
Insurance
- Will one or both of you keep life insurance for the benefit of your children?
- Who will provide medical insurance for the children? For how long?
- Who will be responsible for any medical, dental, prescription or hospital expenses of the children that are not reimbursed by insurance?
Income Taxes
- Who will be entitled to receive any refund from current and past joint-income tax returns?
- Who will be responsible for any deficiencies on any current or past joint-income tax returns?
Enlisting the Help of A Divorce Lawyer
This list is not exhaustive, but it provides a snapshot of the issues that are important to consider while making a decision to pursue divorce. Consult a family law attorney to make sure you understand the relevant issues and their legal impact.