What Not To Do When Your Wife Tells You She Wants A Divorce
Every marriage has its struggles, and you have made an effort to behave honorably as a husband and father, even as your wife has done things that made you really angry. You could forgive her for spending beyond her means, refusing to return to the workforce, being excessively jealous, oversharing on social media, or saying things to her family that cast you in a negative light, but after everything you have done to stay together as a family, she is now saying that she wants a divorce. It is natural to go into panic mode and either try desperately to save the marriage, get the divorce out of the way as quickly as possible, or make her suffer through a much uglier divorce than she had in mind, but from a legal standpoint, all of those things will backfire. Florida law does not consider divorce to be the fault of one spouse or the other, except in cases where one spouse was physically abusive or intentionally caused the other spouse heavy financial losses. Divorce is one of the hardest things to happen to anyone, but you should treat it as the breakup of a business partnership and focus on exercising your legal rights and those of your children. A Boca Raton divorce lawyer can help you think clearly about your divorce and about focusing on giving your children the best possible future.
Don’t Throw Your Family’s Finances Into Chaos
When you know that divorce is inevitable, you should continue to fulfill your financial obligations to your family until the judge issues a divorce judgment outlining the division of marital property and, if applicable, child support, alimony, or both. Most likely, the terms of the divorce judgment will be a verbatim repetition of what you and your spouse agreed to in mediation. Whatever you do, don’t take all the money out of your marital bank account, default on your mortgage, or title your assets in the names of your siblings or business partners. This will only make you look like the bad guy.
Don’t Attempt to Be Your Own Divorce Lawyer or Divorce Mediator
Amicable divorce is an admirable goal, but do it yourself divorce is not. If you and your wife can agree on all the terms of property division during mediation, this is great (and it will probably happen), but don’t try to do divorce mediation at home just the two of you. In fact, if you try to make your own marital settlement agreement without lawyers, you will probably need to change it during court-ordered mediation, which will lead to more feelings of betrayal than if you had just started the negotiations during mediation.
Contact Schwartz | White About Continuing to Be a Good Role Model During Divorce
A South Florida family law attorney can help you have a divorce that is neither too uneventful nor too contentious, so that you can get a fair share of marital property and parenting time. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
equitablemediation.com/blog/divorce-advice-for-men
