Divorce Documents

During a divorce, more than ever, you need to be able to concentrate on facts and details rather than emotion, especially when children are involved and child custody may be an issue. When you’re prepared to see an attorney about your divorce, you need to come prepared. Just as with any legal proceeding, the more information you have available to your lawyer, the better. He or she will likely give you a list of certain documents to copy and bring, but it’s best to bring too much information than not enough. When filing for divorce, there are many different supporting divorce documents for divorce in order to create divorce papers.

Divorce Document Types

• There are certain types of documents that are most important for your divorce lawyer to have copies of.
• Any documents relating to you and your spouse’s income and income tax, including pension and retirement account statements, bank statements, and any savings instruments
• Any agreements or contracts like prenuptial agreements, separation agreements, or agreements regarding how the children should be raised
• Any business documents, if a small business is owned by you and/or your spouse
• Expenses like mortgages, credit card bills, utility bills and loan agreements
• Home and vehicle insurance policies, life and health insurance policies
• Lists of each person’s property before marriage and property acquired during marriage
• Any final directives, wills and powers of attorney documents

Documents For Divorce

Essentially when you go through a divorce, you must present your attorney with a complete picture of your assets, whether individual or jointly owned with your spouse, from cash, safety deposit box contents, accounts, investments, income, expenses, loans, mortgages and every type of asset imaginable.

Income tax returns for you and your spouse aren’t necessary from every year of your marriage, but be sure to bring copies of the last 5 years with you to your lawyer’s office. Also, proof of you and your spouse’s income over the last 3 to 5 years can be helpful as well.

For things such as real estate, it might be a good idea to bring an appraisal of the property, including your primary residence property, if you own more real estate than that. You may want to check with the lawyer through a phone call to determine if it’s worth it to have the property appraised if you don’t have a recent estimate.

Bring along copies of appraisals for any valuable personal property that you’ve recently had appraised, like jewelry for instance. And be sure to list everything you can think of in both your list of personal property and your spouse’s list. Even if something on your spouse’s list is something that you would never want to take or force to be sold, you should list it to give your lawyer an overall financial picture of your marriage.

• If you need help with a Divorce, Click here for a Free Case Review from a Divorce Lawyer near you. The content of this website is provided for informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal advice.