If a divorce is in your future, you may be concerned about how your finances will be affected, especially if you make less than your spouse or you don't work outside of the home.As you may already know, alimony can be awarded during and after a divorce when one spouse was financially dependent on the other spouse during the marriage. Alimony is support payments that are made from a higher-earning spouse to a lesser-earning spouse after the couple has split. While you and your spouse are separated, you may be entitled to post-separation support for the time being until an agreement or order can be made for post-divorce alimony payments. Typically, post-separation support ends when the divorce judgment is entered.It is possible for you and your spouse to agree on post-separation support and/or alimony amount on your own, or you may need the court to settle these issues for you.When the court is needed to determine whether post-separation support or alimony is necessary, you must be … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2015
What to expect during the beginning stages of a divorce
One of the most difficult aspects of divorce for many people is not knowing what to expect throughout the process. We'd like to take out some of the guesswork by giving you a step-by-step guide from when you first pick up the phone to call us to when your divorce is finalized and you are ready to move forward with your life.We are going to discuss the first part of the divorce process in this post, and we will discuss the subsequent parts in later posts. The initial call:The first step of the process is calling our firm, Vitale Family Law. You will likely speak to our paralegal, who will ask you questions about your legal issue and check our conflict list to make sure that we can take you on as a client. Our paralegal will also provide you with some information about the divorce process and our fees. Finally, she will make an appointment for you to meet with one of our lawyers.The initial consultation:The first meeting you have with your lawyer will usually take an hour or two. … [Read more...]
