Questions to consider before hiring your attorney

Questions to consider before hiring your attorney

Before you decide to work with an attorney, always do some initial research on them. Check out their website, research any reviews written about them, check out his or her office and make sure you’re comfortable. And always ask questions when you meet with them. Below is a list of some helpful questions to consider when hiring an attorney:

• How many divorce cases have you handled? Is divorce or family law your primary practice area?
•  Have you handled any cases similar to mine? How did you handle them?
• How heavy is your caseload? And how accessible are you throughout the process?
• Do you practice collaborative divorce?
• What is your theory about divorce? And how involved will I be in this process and the strategy behind the case?
•   How much do you charge?
•  How expensive will the entire process be?
• Are there other people in the office I will be working with? Can I meet them?
• Have you worked with my spouse’s attorney before?
•   How familiar are you with the family law judges?
• Do you have experience dealing with all the issues in my case? (child custody? Maintenance agreements?)

In addition to these, here’s a helpful list of additional questions you may consider. Many attorneys will charge a nominal fee for an initial consultation, and you should be prepared to ask your questions during this time. Get a feel for the attorney during this meeting and ask yourself whether you can see working with him or her.

How should I handle my finances post divorce?

It’s not uncommon for divorcing couples to have reached a final decree that makes the divorce official, but to still have assets that are not fully divided. If you or your spouse have a work-sponsored 401(k), ownership of company stock, or shared real estate or investment property, there are a handful of steps you’ll have to go through in order to ensure the assets become fully divided.

An attorney can help you first secure a qualified domestic relations order, which can help you divide the 401(k). If your spouse is the holder of the 401(k), you can then roll that money into an IRA, where it can maintain its tax-deferred status.

Likewise, the order can help you sell or divest your interest in your ex-spouse’s stock with his employer, and may help you secure any interest in equity you might have in shared real estate or banking accounts.

Beware that in addition to any potential maintenance or child support payments you may be receiving, that you should plan to budget your finances to ensure you have enough for emergencies and to ensure you are planning for the future. An attorney may help you in this endeavor, or he or she may be able to provide you with a reference for a financial planner.

In addition, there are a variety of helpful websites and articles on this topic that may provide examples of how you might plan best for your life post-divorce.

Calculating child support

In divorces or separation cases where children are involved, the court takes asset allocation very seriously. Its primary concern is ensuring the best interests of the children are protected. That may mean that a parent who is more financially secure than other may be responsible for child support payments. 

Regardless of the parties’ financial status, the court will work to ensure that both parties are aware of and agree to a financial plan for the children. This can include a range of things like who will pay for health care insurance, doctor’s visits, extracurricular activities, and more.

If you or a loved one are considering a divorce but you aren’t sure if you’ll be able to afford raising children without your former spouse’s help, the state of Colorado has developed a useful online calculator that may help you determine how much child support you may receive or have to pay. While the calculator may help you get an initial idea of your financial landscape, it’s best to discuss child support and all of your options with your attorney, who can help advocate for the best results for both you and your children.

Similarly, if you are having issues collecting your child support, contact your attorney to discuss your options. You may also want to research the range of resources that the federal and state government share to help parents who are having difficulty collecting child support payments.

Rules regarding health insurance

Colorado state law provides a few helpful rules on health insurance after a divorce. The law has a prohibition on an insured spouse who is going through a divorce from changing or canceling a family insurance policy without advance notice and consent of the other party.

If you carry the insurance for your family, be aware that you can’t drop your former spouse without his or her consent. You should also be aware that changes you make to your insurance plan could affect your coverage or any coverage you have for your children.

Absent a separate agreement, health insurance that you have through your ex-spouse will generally be cancelled at the end of month following a divorce. If your spouse provided the insurance, it may be possible to get temporary coverage through your former spouse’s employer using COBRA. If you do need to use COBRA coverage, you will likely be responsible for the payments, but your insurance plan will remain intact.

If you have questions about what may or may not happen to your health insurance coverage, contact your attorney.

Reporting Maintenance On Your Taxes: Avoid an IRS Headache

Tax season may have come and gone for this year, but don’t put your taxes too far down on your list of priorities just yet. The IRS recently revealed that it is going to start looking more closely at tax returns for divorced couples where maintenance, or alimony, is involved.

The news comes on the heels of a new study that revealed a gross discrepancy between what ex-spouses should be reporting on their tax returns and what they’re actually claiming.

Under the tax code, a spouse who is paying maintenance can deduct those payments each year, while the spouse who is receiving payments must claim that money as income. While payments for child support aren’t considered income and can’t be deducted, alimony payments must be.

A recent report by an IRS watchdog revealed that nearly half of the tax returns from ex-spouses contained discrepancies regarding alimony paid and income reported. The report estimated that over a five-year period, those errors could amount to $1.7 billion dollars. In light of that news, the IRS plans to change its audit filters to catch some of these suspicious returns.

To avoid a potential audit, it’s important to ensure you know what’s required. Here’s a helpful blog regarding how to file a return after a divorce. And it may be helpful to seek out an accountant or someone with specialized experience with these types of returns. 

Read the full IRS story from the Wall Street Journal here.

Taking Litigation out of Divorce

Many families facing divorce don’t realize just how long the process might take, but with overburdened courts, mandatory waiting periods and conflicting family schedules, the process can drag on for the better part of a year or longer. For those families who want to minimize the stress that a yearlong divorce process might create, there are a number of alternatives for you to explore.

Mediation and collaborative divorce are among the more popular alternatives to a traditional divorce, and both are gaining traction as cost-effective, efficient means of achieving your desired result. At the outset, these approaches require that you and your family agree on using an alternative to the traditional model. You don’t have to agree on everything, but it’s necessary that both parties understand and buy into a different process. Both of these methods have a track record of helping families find long term, mutually satisfying agreements where stress is minimized and kids come first.

If you have questions about whether your family might be able to use an alternative to litigation, ask your attorney to explain the differences between the various methods, and talk to your family about the process.

You can learn more about collaborative divorce here, and more about mediation here.

And here’s a story about how collaborative family law is helping families in other areas of the country.