SO YOU’RE GETTING A DIVORCE!
A GUIDE TO THE DO’S AND DON’T’S
TO HELP YOUR LAWYER AND YOUR CASE
April 2007
By Alanna Williams
As with most legal proceedings, there are different phases and issues involved in each case. Many divorce cases involve issues of custody, visitation, child support, spousal support, and property. Property issues include the division of houses, vehicles, financial accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, personal property, loans, and credit card debt. Many cases also involve issues of marital fault, such as adultery, cruelty and/or desertion.
How attorneys handle custody issues is very different than how we handle an equitable distribution case. Custody generally does not involve many documents, but does involve a lot of witness testimony. If you are at the beginning stages of a custody case, start thinking about who would be favorable witnesses to your case. This would include family members, friends and teachers. If there are allegations of abuse or neglect, witnesses may include police officers, and social workers. Soon after retaining counsel, provide him or her with a list of the names addresses and telephone numbers of all potential witnesses. It is helpful if you also write a brief description as to the knowledge of each witness and what they have observed. Your attorney may also need documents such as report cards and medical reports. We also recommend providing some pictures of your children as well as pictures of you and the children engaging in different activities. It’s nice to start out a case introducing the judge to your children, and pictures are the most effective way to accomplish this.
Virginia is not a community property state, but rather an equitable distribution state. In practical terms, a Judge will start off dividing the assets 50-50, but then can award more or less than 50% of the assets based on the monetary and non-monetary contributions of the parties.
Equitable distribution is very document intensive. The purpose of equitable distribution is to classify each piece of property, value the property, and distribute the property. For example, Sally purchased a single family house in Fairfax County in 1997 for $250,000.00. She put down $20,000.00 as a down payment, and by 2002, had reduced the mortgage by $50,000.00. In 2002, she married Joe. Unfortunately, Joe became a huge disappointment. He began drinking; he got a ticket for DWI and then was fired from his job. He sits at home and mopes all day and Sally has had enough. The house that Sally purchased for $250,000.00 is now worth $950,000.00. Based on Sally’s down payment on the house and the reduction in the mortgage prior to the marriage, she is going to own more than 50% of the equity in the house. As her lawyer, we are also going to be arguing the negative non-monetary and negative monetary damages Joe made to this marriage that would warrant Sally receiving even more of the equity in the home.
If there are property issues in your case, begin to collect all documentation that reflects assets and debts and their values. This includes house titles and HUD-1 statements; vehicle titles, financial bank statements, investment account statements, retirement account statements, credit card statements, statements of your monthly bills to include utility bills, telephone bills, car payments, loan payments, etc. It is important that once you begin the litigation process, that you do not throw any documentation away. Sanctions can be assessed against you for destroying potential evidence, even if done inadvertently. Please do not write your attorney notes all over these statements. If there is important information about a document that you would like for your attorney to know, then make a duplicate copy to write on, or write on a post-it note and attach the post-it note to the document. We have had to spend countless hours using wite-out to erase notes from clients on documents that we need to use at trial.
Discovery is a critical part of the litigation process. It is time consuming and frustrating. However, many cases are won and lost in the discovery process. It is important that when you receive interrogatory questions, that you answer each of the questions thoroughly. This does not mean you need to write a 10 page dissertation to each question. When producing documents, provide your attorney with two sets, one set for your attorney and one set for the opposing counsel. Please let your attorney know which documents go with each request. If you do not have any documents to a particular request, then let your attorney know that you do not have them. The more organized you are in the discovery phase of the case will result in significantly less money that you will have to pay to your attorney.
A few other tips:
1. Do not call your attorney six times a day. If you have multiple questions, write them down and then call your attorney once with your list of questions.
2. If you call your attorney on more than one occasion and are unable to reach him or her, ask for their legal assistant, and ask them to schedule a telephone conference with your attorney. There are times that we are involved in multi-day trials and when we get back to the office, we have over forty telephone calls to return. Scheduling a specific time with your attorney, insures his or her availability.
3. If you want to see your attorney, make an appointment. Please do not “stop-by.” Many times, even if we are in the office, we are under deadlines to get pleadings filed with the Court. Often, we are unable to make unscheduled time to see our clients.
4. Lastly, pay your bill on time. Each of our attorneys can only handle a limited number of cases. We do have to turn away cases and it is frustrating for an attorney to find themselves in a position of turning away a paying client for a non-paying client. This can create an antagonistic relationship with your attorney, which results in your having to find new counsel in the middle of your case. Talk with your attorney at the initial consultation about the fees and what expectations they have of you regarding your bills and make sure you can afford your attorney before retaining them. An attorney with 30 years experience may be $300.00 more an hour than an attorney with 15 years experience. Your particular case may not need someone with 30 years experience.
Wishing you success through
your divorce and thereafter.
THE DUFF LAW FIRM