Ending a marriage may be complicated and stressful. Unfortunately, there are many ways that you may make matters worse.
Stay calm
Some of your actions may be used as evidence during divorce. Stay calm and reasonable, be transparent and do not engage in these five activities.
Social media
Social media posts, regardless of their age, may cause problems. The most effective way to prevent this problem is being careful and prudent about posting. Typical problematic posts include:
- Negative or insulting comments about the spouse or their family
- Photographs or descriptions of extravagant spending or trips, especially when support or property division is at issue
- Photographs or descriptions of drinking, drug use or other risky behavior
- Inappropriate or risky photographs involving the children which may also involve information identifying their school or where they engage in activities
Destruction of any potential evidence, including social media posts, may be illegal. This could cause even bigger legal problems later.
Text messages
Private text messages involving divorce issues can also become troublesome. But private texts involving negative comments about the other spouse are likely inadmissible.
However, deleting these texts might constitute destruction of evidence, so eliminating these texts is not an option. Being careful is the best method to avoid problems.
Assets
By law, spouses must disclose accounts, investments, homes, vehicles, money and all their other assets. Transferring funds, failure to disclose assets or money, failure to cash paychecks and engaging in other methods to hide assets is illegal and may damage your case.
These activities also leave an electronic or other trail of proof that special court investigators or your spouse’s attorney may uncover.
Be transparent and identify all of your assets. Also, be sure to follow up on any reasonable suspicions that your spouse is hiding assets.
Spending
Engaging in lavish spending to prevent their allocation in property division, known as dissipation of assets or marital waste, may cause problems. Even spending on vacations may appear as an extravagant.
Defer large purchases or spending until the divorce is final. Otherwise, the judge may consider excessive spending as vindictive or marital waste.
Dating
Dating anyone who could be a danger to the children or impact your relationship with them may be used against you.
Attorneys can assist you with preparing for divorce. They may also help you seek a fair and reasonable decree.
