Written by Leah Gleason
Thinking about getting a divorce? Have a meeting with an attorney set up? Great, you’re on the right track. Sometimes the people I meet with aren’t really prepared to meet with me regarding starting a divorce. I’ve listed some things to think about when getting ready to meet with an attorney, or things you might need to know.
- Do you have any children that would be impacted? They are minors or have special needs.
- Paystubs and tax returns – I’ll need these to calculate a child support payment.
- Health insurance – there are forms I need to file that ask about your health insurance.
- Social Security Numbers – I’ll need yours, your spouses, and any children’s.
- Do you own any assets? Homes, cars, trailers, I’ll need VIN numbers and values. These aren’t necessary right away, but start thinking about them.
- If you changed your name, do you want to change your name back to your maiden name? It is significantly easier to do that during the divorce proceeding rather than after.
- Have you had this conversation with your spouse?
- Where do you work and what are your hours like?
- Finally, think about what your monthly income to spending ratio is. This is not a barrier to divorce, but something you may want to think about.
These are just a few things you might be asked in your initial meeting with an attorney. Having this information ready to go will help the process start faster. Sometimes you are just meeting with an attorney to look at what the process might be. These types of meetings are perfectly fine! If this is the case, it might be better to have a phone conversation rather than an in-person meeting. However, that is completely up to you. Personally, I like having in-person meetings so I can get to know a person better than over the phone. Overall, when meeting with a divorce attorney or family law attorney, questions are going to get very personal, very quickly, so you should be prepared for that. We are trying to learn about your individual situation to we know how to handle your case.