Very rarely do people get married with the expressed intention to seek a divorce further down the line. Yet, that seems to happen to quite a number of couples. Divorce isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s been around for almost as long as the institute of marriage has. Regardless of the reasons for a divorce, there are steps you need to take before you’re able to change your status to ‘single’ again.
Legalities
Getting married seemed like it was all about dressing up, eating and dancing. It wasn’t. You entered a legal, binding agreement at that altar. Now you’ll need a different type of legal, binding agreement intended to dissolve the first one. Most people think the divorce decree is the only legal agreement you need to divorce. Not true. The Marital Settlement Agreement Tampa comes before your divorce decree.
In the process of getting a divorce, you’ll first meet with your attorney or mediator to discuss why you’re seeking the dissolution of your union. You’ll make a list of your marital assets and decide how, in a perfect world, you’d like to divide those assets. If you have children with your spouse, you and your legal representatives will also talk about how you’d like to share custody and how much child support is appropriate. These are all provisions that will end up in the marital settlement agreement – eventually.
Talking It Out
Don’t rush ahead to sign just yet, though. You’ve discussed with your legal counsel what you’d like to see in your settlement agreement. Now it’s time to listen to your soon-to-be-ex-spouse to discover what they want. This is where it gets tricky. It’s not as though your relationship was in a great place already and now you’re stuck attempting to be civil to one another while you divide the stuff you accumulated while you were together. Try to put it in perspective. Go in with the idea that while you’d like to have those things, you know what you’re willing to give up to get to the end goal of starting over.
Focus on what really matters. If you have children, ensuring they’re taken care of the way they deserve is of the utmost importance. Many parents who enter divorce proceedings voluntarily put aside their differences to make things easier on their children. If your spouse is an unhealthy or unsafe person for whom your children to be around, speak up about that early in your conversations with your legal team.
If you seek a divorce, try to focus on what’s really important to ease your way.
