In life, we make all kinds of plans. We make financial plans, estate plans, and retirement plans. Even when it comes to the smaller things, like travel, or an important party, we often make detailed plans.
Good outcomes are often the result of careful planning.
Yet, when it comes to divorce, many people go into the process without a plan. Yes, a couple might plan to hire divorce lawyers, or a mediator, or have it as their goal to file for uncontested divorce, but this is not a plan.
Not having a plan is understandable. Unlike other life events, divorce brings with it negative and conflicting feelings. Couples or individuals might consider divorce for months or even years, without seriously planning how to go about doing it. And in some cases, divorce is a moment of crisis in a relationship and a life—the discovered infidelity, the argument that went too far, the final straw, a private moment of surrender; we don’t plan for the unexpected because, well, it’s unexpected.
Most of us can agree that we don’t want to end up stuck in endless divorce litigation, want to avoid unnecessary conflict as much as possible, and want to keep divorce costs down. When couples file for divorce, they also might have more personal goals and priorities, goals and priorities that can be honored with a legal strategy—a plan.
A legal roadmap is a legal strategy, a step-by-step plan of action for your divorce. A divorce lawyer reviews your documents, financial details, court filings, and formal communications, then meets with you to understand your goals and priorities. After exploring different options, and discussing risks and opportunities, your divorce lawyer will develop a legal strategy that’s right for you. With a legal strategy in place, whatever stage you are in your divorce, you’ll have clarity (backed by legal knowledge) about what needs to happen next.
Filing for divorce or hiring a divorce lawyer or mediator is not a legal strategy. Without a clear strategy in place, you and your partner can end up in session after session with your lawyers, financial planners, and other professionals, spending billable hour after billable hour going in circles, with no clear resolution. Why? Because you had no clear plan or roadmap with specifically delineated goals and priorities. Without an agenda outlining specific intended outcomes, meetings can end up going off course because of emotions or distraction.
We don’t move effectively or efficiently when we don’t know our destination or goals. A legal roadmap offers you, your lawyer, and your divorce team, an important tool to guide discussions and meetings, every step of the way. With you, your divorce lawyer, and divorce team on the same page, there are no surprises, just greater clarity about where you are in the process and a focused sense of where you want to go.
As a collaborative divorce law firm in Washington state, Truce Law understands the importance of planning and strategy. If you decide to seek full representation with Truce Law after receiving your divorce roadmap, you already know how our law firm will approach your case. You hire us knowing that each session will be focused on solutions with clearly defined intended outcomes.
Divorce is one of the most complicated legal situations you will likely encounter in your life. You’ll have to make decisions that impact your finances, your retirement, your debts, and your children. It helps to have a plan.
In this article, we’ll explore why you might want to have a legal strategy in place before you file for divorce. And why it’s a good idea to ask your lawyer for a legal strategy before you get started. We’ll also explore what makes Truce Law’s legal roadmap unique.
The consequences of not having a legal strategy–or plan–for your divorce can be significant. Without a plan in place, there’s more opportunity for miscommunication between you and your ex, greater risk you and your former partner will end up in court (even if you want to have an amicable or out of court divorce), higher risk of delays, and more stress for you, your former partner, and your children.
In this article, we’ll explore what a divorce strategy is, and why you might want to speak to the Washington state divorce lawyers at Truce Law to book a divorce strategy session today.
Filing for Divorce is Not a Legal Strategy
Here’s what happens in so many divorces. One partner decides they want to get a divorce. They might let their spouse know they’ve made this decision—or they might just let them know when they serve the paperwork. One partner might hire a divorce lawyer to help them file the divorce paperwork. Or one spouse, in the heat of the moment, might file divorce paperwork on their own.
They might do this thinking their requests are reasonable, and they expect their spouse to sign off on everything. Their spouse might have even told them that they don’t want a big court battle.
And sometimes, a couple makes a mutual decision to file for divorce. They might plan to file the paperwork together as an uncontested divorce. They might try to do this with or without the help of a divorce lawyer or divorce mediator. But here’s what can often end up happening. At some point in the process, there’s a disagreement.
Sometimes the disagreement arises after one spouse has already filed for divorce; their partner receives the paperwork, reads it through, and realizes that there are details he or she doesn’t agree with. And sometimes the disagreement arises before any paperwork gets filed.
A couple might find that there are aspects about dividing debt, property, or child custody that they can’t agree on, when they are still in the discussion stage. Or, they might try to work together to fill out the paperwork, but then get overwhelmed with all the details and decisions that must be made.
The chances of encountering a disagreement are so high because when you file for divorce, you must make many small and big decisions, and to file for uncontested divorce, or agreed divorce, you must agree on all of them. You’ll have to decide what property is separate and what property is shared, and distinguishing between the two isn’t always straightforward, especially if you’ve combined your accounts and have been married for some time.
You’ll need to decide how to divide marital property, including deciding how to divide big investments like your family home, your retirement savings, and even pensions (many individuals may not even realize that they might be entitled to a portion of their spouse’s work pension or other forms of compensation if their spouse contributed to the pension during the marriage).
Suddenly, a couple finds themselves facing the prospect of putting their home on the market or renting it out. Or they find themselves figuring out how to divide shared investments without losing value.
If you have debts, you’ll need to decide how to divide debts, and more importantly, divide debts in a manner that protects you and your spouse from bankruptcy or debt collectors if your former partner should become unable to pay the debt in the future. If you have pets, you’ll need to decide whether to have shared or sole pet custody and decide how that’s going to work out.
If you have children, you’ll need to develop a parenting plan where you outline everything from how you’ll manage visitation, to how you’ll split holidays, to how you’ll make major decisions for your children. You’ll also need to work out a child support agreement, which means navigating child support economic tables.
And even if you choose to co-parent 50-50, you’ll still need to work out which parent will be named the custodial parent for tax and legal purposes; you’ll need to work through details like how you’ll take tax credits (will you alternate years or will one parent get the credit every year, for example?), and you’ll still need to figure out how child support will be handled (a 50-50 co-parenting split doesn’t always mean that one parent doesn’t pay child support).
Many couples don’t realize how helpful it can be to have support as they make these crucial decisions. Your divorce lawyer is not just someone who has been there before in terms of helping countless clients navigate similar challenges, but ideally, your divorce lawyer has mediation, negotiation, and amicable resolution strategies to help you reach compromises when disagreements arise. Truce Law uses a collaborative approach to divorce. This approach uses conflict-resolution, peaceful negotiation, and mediation strategies to help couples resolve disagreements, reach compromises, and find solutions.
What happens when a couple disagrees about one of these decisions determines how the divorce will proceed. And without a plan in place, anything can happen.
If one party has already filed divorce paperwork, disagreement at this stage can result in litigation, or at the very least, weeks or months of mediation. If the couple is trying to reach an out-of-court settlement before formally filing for divorce, they might, for the first time, appreciate the immensity of the challenge before them, and decide to hire lawyers, a mediator, a divorce coach, or bring on a collaborative divorce team to help them with the process. They might need to request a stay on proceedings to plan and think about how to move forward.
If they have already filed for divorce, changing course can be time-consuming, costly, and stressful. There is another way forward.
Divorce Planning—What is a Legal Roadmap?
A legal roadmap, or legal strategy, is a comprehensive roadmap to help you plan your approach to your divorce—or to help you chart a new path if you’re stuck in the current one. You can request a legal roadmap before you file for divorce. Or seek a legal roadmap if you have already filed for divorce and find yourself at an impasse.
What happens when you request a legal roadmap, or legal strategy with Truce Law?
- An attorney reviews your documents. Think your divorce paperwork is ready for filing? Truce Law can review your divorce paperwork before you file, double-check everything, and flag any potential issues. A divorce lawyer knows where things commonly go wrong and can spot these issues quickly. Or, maybe you’ve started filling out divorce paperwork, have gotten overwhelmed, and need some help?
Our lawyer can provide you with a clear list of the documents and information you’ll need to file and help you fill in the gaps during your meeting. And, if you’re in the middle of litigation, or have hit an impasse in mediation, we can analyze court filings, financial documents, and formal communications—and offer another path forward—a second opinion.
- Meeting with Your Attorney. After your lawyer has had time to review everything, you’ll meet with your divorce attorney to discuss goals, concerns, and priorities. Meeting times are flexible and tailored to your schedule and needs. At Truce Law, we conduct meetings online, for your convenience. Your attorney can help you understand your legal options, help you evaluate risks of taking certain paths forward, identify opportunities for negotiation and compromise, and answer legal questions. You and your lawyer work together to create a clear plan, with actionable next steps. During your meeting, your lawyer can offer guidance on how to fill in the blanks, identify any missed details, solve problems, resolve disagreements, and move forward.
- Written Action Plan. Your lawyer will provide you with a written plan, outlining Truce Law’s recommended legal strategy for your situation. The plan will include key issues your lawyer identified, and a step-by-step plan of action to help you address these issues.
- Smooth Transition into Full Representation. If you choose to hire Truce Law to represent you, documents have been reviewed, and you’ll have a legal team ready to act on your strategy right away.
A legal roadmap puts you in the driver’s seat of your divorce, with a clear path forward.
Why Do I Need a Legal Roadmap?
A legal roadmap or legal strategy gives you clarity about how to approach your divorce before you file any paperwork, and if you choose, even before you break the news to your spouse. With your goals in mind, we can identify potential points of conflict, help you identify risks, and opportunities for negotiation and compromise—and offer a plan for how you can approach major issues. We can help you get a legal, financial, and professional team in place before any legal documents are filed. If your goal is to have an amicable, or out-of-court divorce, a legal roadmap is a valuable plan that you and your spouse can follow to meet your goals.
And if you and your spouse have reached an impasse in litigation or mediation or are looking for a different or more peaceful way forward, a legal roadmap can provide a fresh vision and clarity about the next steps.
Here are some key benefits of having a legal roadmap:
-
- A legal roadmap can help you and your spouse thoroughly consider all aspects of your divorce. You’ll have the peace of mind of knowing you’re not missing any important details. At Truce Law, we can help you distinguish between separate and marital property; identify any issues with distinguishing between property types; divide retirement accounts and pensions; divide debts in a manner that protects you and your spouse from future bankruptcies or unexpected financial shortfalls; moreover, we can help you develop a parenting plan that works for your children and family, and so much more.
- A legal roadmap can help you and your spouse identify potential points of conflict or major issues before you file for divorce and suggest tools and resources to help you resolve these conflicts more amicably. Divorce can get complicated. With a legal roadmap in place, you’ll know whether you’ll need to hire a financial advisor, forensic accountant, bankruptcy attorney, estate planning lawyers, or other professionals to help you along.
- A clear, personalized plan to reduce stress and uncertainty. Divorce can be overwhelming because of all the unknowns. With a legal roadmap, you get the clarity you need to reduce uncertainty in an uncertain time.
At the end of the process, you’ll receive a step-by-step strategy to approach your divorce.
And there’s peace of mind. If we cannot agree on a strategy or determine we’re not the right fit for your situation, you get your money back.
When is the Best Time to Get a Legal Roadmap?
The best time to get a legal roadmap is before anyone files for divorce, long before litigation has begun. Having a clear plan for your divorce can potentially reduce conflict, save you time, unnecessary litigation, and even possibly reduce costs that arise when you end up having to change course or course correct repeatedly.
But you can get a legal roadmap at any point in your divorce. If you’re facing an impasse in litigation, aren’t satisfied with the work your legal team is doing and want a second opinion, or feel that mediation is going nowhere, it’s never too late to seek a legal roadmap or a second opinion from Truce Law.
With our skills in conflict resolution, mediation and negotiation, Truce Law has helped countless clients resolve some of the most difficult challenges of their divorce.
What is Included in a Legal Roadmap?
When you seek a legal roadmap from Truce Law, you’ll receive:
- A thorough legal review of existing documents, court filings, financials, communications, and existing facts. Your attorney will spend at least 60 minutes reviewing everything to prepare for your strategy session.
- A 60–90-minute strategy session with your attorney, to review everything, answer your questions, discuss your goals, and develop a plan of action.
- A written action plan. The deliverable at the end of the process is a step-by-step plan of action.
- Money Back Guarantee. If we cannot agree on a strategy or find that we are not the right fit for you, you’ll get your money back.
- A solid foundation for full representation. Some clients come to the legal roadmap strategy session with prepared documents and a good sense of how they want to file. They just want to make sure they’re not missing any details and want to have a lawyer review their paperwork. Many clients find that after the strategy session; they can make small adjustments and file for uncontested divorce without added assistance. Other clients face truly complex legal issues.
For these clients, the roadmap highlights the complexity of the situation and outlines a strategy for working through each issue. If you like the strategy we’ve presented, the legal roadmap can offer you a smooth transition to full representation with Truce Law. With the legal roadmap in place, you know exactly what we have to offer and what the plan will be going forward. But there’s no pressure. The legal roadmap is yours to keep, no matter what you decide.
Next Steps
Contact Truce Law for a Case Evaluation to see if our legal roadmap is right for you.
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is unique. For guidance specific to your circumstances, consult a licensed family law attorney in your area.