5 Common Mistakes When Preparing for California Divorce

Preparing for divorce seems a complicated job, especially if you’re doing it for the first time. Couples are confused when they need to handle all the process on their own, so many prefer hiring a lawyer to get the case finalized faster. But what should you do if you haven’t met an attorney you could trust or just don’t wish to spend money on them at all? We suggest that you read our post about common divorce mistakes to avoid them and not lose time and finances. Also, follow the tips we provide after each mistake to get your marriage finished effortlessly.

Being driven by emotions instead of a cold mind

The first thing that you can screw up during the marriage dissolution procedure is being calm and thoughtful. Once you find out that your partner cheated, lied, or abused kids or you indirectly, you feel angry and eager to divorce them, but is it what you need to do immediately? Definitely not. Evaluate your chances of winning the case while you’re emotional and you’ll see that the process is quite complicated. That’s why you need to calm down first, think carefully, and build a strategy that you will follow to get the most out of a break-up with your husband (or wife).

Before you proceed to court, keep in mind that you need to make a lot of things clear to yourself. Who will file for divorce online California: you or your partner? Do you need support from them after your divorce and whether your partner can provide it? Are you ready to file for entire custody, and what will you do if your partner wants to share it? Once you know the answers to these questions, you can start searching for proper legal advice to shape your claims in the petition for marriage dissolution.  Additionally to this, you can also visit TruLaw who works with highly regarded legal teams with a proven track record of successful recovery.

Taking advice from people other than lawyers and court workers

During your preparation for divorce, you may feel tempted to ask for a piece of advice from any divorced person you know. This is not the best thing you can do unless those people have degrees in law or work in court.

The matter is that everyone’s situation is different, as well as the reasons for divorce, property kinds, the age of kids (if there are any), etc. Therefore, you should not listen and follow the advice of people who may wish you well but are not experts in the field of divorce law in California. Instead, visit a local court office to communicate with clerks if you are unsure about documents to submit or need any consultation on how to fill them out. Also, you can read our other posts on DIY divorce to start the procedure without attorneys. 

Messing up the papers

The third of the divorce mistakes to avoid on our list is messing up your documents. This often happens when you are rushing to get them done and fail to spend enough time researching the current marriage dissolution procedure in your state.

To avoid this mistake, get your documents on property, financial situation, assets, etc. in order before you start the filing process. Collect all the papers and have them scanned as well to make sure your partner wouldn’t take away any of them to hide from the court. Also, remember to evaluate all your property and real estate before splitting up with your partner so that the court could divide it equally during the investigation. 

Failing to follow court orders

This mistake is often made by people who disagree with paying alimony to their partners or kids as ordered by the court verdict. However, you have to think twice before refusing to comply with the decision of the judge: the outcomes of such behavior may cost you even more. You can be obliged to pay the fines, and court fees instead of your spouse, or even get into jail for a certain time depending on the state law.

Hiding the property bought in marriage

Finally, the last thing you should not do when it comes to splitting up with your wife or husband is hiding any property or assets obtained during your family life. First of all, your partner is likely to find out that you did it. Second, they can expose the truth to the court, and if they do, your image in the eyes of the judge will be ruined. This may end up in you losing all the potential rewards after divorce like spousal support or joint custody of your kids. Besides this, you may be fined for hiding important information from the court. If you don’t want to face such negative outcomes, consider being honest with the legal system and your assigned judge in particular.