04 May Why Hiring a Divorce Lawyer Is an Essential Step
When a marriage breaks and both partners admit that the union is unsalvageable, divorce is the next logical move. Even if you think you and your partner agree about dividing property, handling debts, and how you’ll raise your children together, consider why hiring a divorce lawyer is an essential step in the process.
Divorce Lawyers Know Things That You Don’t
Experienced divorce lawyers in Washington State know the law, the requirements for court approval, and things that you may not know about protecting your interests and providing for your children.
You may be preoccupied with things like whether or not to sell your house, who gets which furniture, and financial arrangements. You may not have thought about a future where one or the other of you has passed away or how you’ll support your children if you lose your job. A divorce lawyer can walk you through all the contingencies and eventualities in a divorce settlement.
An Objective Point of View
Hiring a divorce lawyer is an essential step because a qualified divorce attorney can provide an objective perspective on issues that you must resolve in order for the court to approve a divorce settlement. While your lawyer must represent your interests, they don’t have to take on your emotional grievances. A divorce lawyer can help you focus on the essentials of a good divorce settlement agreement without getting bogged down with emotional baggage.
This is especially important in Washington State, which is a “no-fault” divorce state. This means that the court doesn’t care if your partner behaved like a scoundrel. While flagrant waste of marital assets might be an issue that affects how you divide the marital property, the court only has to determine that the terms of a divorce settlement are “fair and equitable.” That doesn’t necessarily mean everything gets divided 50-50, but because of the no-fault rule, the court won’t use a divorce settlement as a means of punishing a wayward spouse, either. A divorce lawyer will guide you toward a solution the court will accept as fair.
Court Requirements
A divorce lawyer knows court rules and requirements. The court won’t approve a divorce settlement not filed in the correct form within the proper time frame. In addition to that, hiring a divorce lawyer is an essential step to guide you in gathering required documentation to prove the value of marital assets, the responsibility for debts, and which property didn’t become “community property” during the marriage.
If your Washington State marriage breaks, contact the experts at LaCoste Family Law for help in obtaining the most advantageous divorce settlement possible under Washington law.