Divorce is a notoriously tedious, complex, and lengthy process. Even “simple” divorces with no children or high-value assets involved must deal with the red tape of the family court process. Marital dissolutions often take much longer than the parties involved originally thought. Delays may stem from your spouse’s lawyer, your spouse, or your side of litigation. Find out the most common reasons for delayed divorce resolution in California and avoid these time-consuming mistakes.
Work with Your Spouse on Custody Issues
Custody battles can be incredibly long, drawn out, and heart wrenching for everyone involved – especially the children. If there are children involved in your divorce, the best way to speed up the process is to work together with your soon-to-be-ex spouse to create your own parenting plan. This may be difficult for many couples, especially when there are significant disagreements in decision-making and residential parental responsibilities. However, if you and your spouse can manage to put aside your differences and focus on what is best for your child, you can likely come up with your own parental responsibility arrangement.
Creating your own parenting arrangement will not only save significant time in the litigation process, but it will also ensure you and your spouse get what you both want (at least to a certain extent). Parents who create their own plans have control over a child’s love, protection, and guidance after divorce. Use a calendar to help you plan residential time with each parent, including day-to-day care, overnight stays, vacations, and holidays. In situations where it would be in a child’s best interest if one parent had primary parental responsibilities, it may not be possible to agree on an arrangement during your divorce trial.
Leave the Discovery Process to Professionals
The discovery phase of a divorce trial is the portion where both sides can add up the other’s total income, assets, and marital properties. Leave this process to a professional attorney or private investigator to move things along quickly and efficiently. A lawyer will be able to help you with the discovery process to determine true income and debt amounts, including any hidden assets your spouse may have.
There are many divorce cases where a spouse will try to hide accounts offshore or keep assets a secret from the courts to keep them in a divorce. Hidden assets are a dangerous risk in divorces that can lead to one spouse getting an unfair settlement in the California courts. An attorney will hire a private investigator to ensure your spouse isn’t hiding any assets from you. Trying to go through the discovery phase on your own can lead to missed assets, miscalculations, and a longer divorce process. Leave it to a professional divorce attorney.
Prepare Ahead of Time
Whether you believe your divorce will be simple or complex, preparing as much as possible ahead of time can significantly reduce wasted time and last-minute red tape. For example, if you know you will want to file an Epstein credit for reimbursement of a mortgage payment you made on behalf of you and your spouse, you can and should start this process prior to your divorce trial. There are many documents you can begin to gather together ahead of time, such as proofs of income and your credit history report. Adding up your own assets and income beforehand can help prevent issues and unwelcome surprises during the trial.
Although every divorce case is different, there are many documents and minor processes you can do ahead of time to make your divorce run smoother. Speak to an attorney to learn what you can do now to make the process shorter for your family.
