Unfortunately, marriage does not always last. Emotional disconnect and individual decisions can quickly cause married couples to decide to get divorced. A couple of tips may help those contemplating divorce in New Jersey.
First, a couple interested in dissolving their marriage may want to consider legal separation first. Legal separation is largely similar to divorce, but the difference is that the couple stays married. This enables them to do tax filing together and allows both parties to stay on the same health insurance plan if one of the spouses gets his or her insurance from an employer.
If the two spouses are already sure they want to get divorced, an important first step is to track all assets. This includes searching for legal documents related to particular assets, taking photos of evidence and becoming familiar with both individual and joint financial portfolios. If the divorce process might become ugly, keeping essential documents in a security box or even having them mailed to a post office box will reduce the risk of a soon-to-be ex stealing or trying to destroy the documents during the divorce proceeding.
If the two spouses in New Jersey are able to find some common ground during their divorce proceeding, they may benefit from going through mediation or collaborative divorce, which can be less stressful and expensive compared with traditional divorce litigation. Otherwise, going to court to resolve issues such as property division is inevitable. Unfortunately, in court, a judge will have to make the final decisions for the couple, with the decisions possibly not being in alignment with one or both of the parties’ wishes.
Source: wisebread.com, “How to Protect Yourself Financially During a Divorce or Separation“, Samantha Stauf, July 10, 2017