Last Updated on November 18, 2022 by admin
If you’re thinking about filing for divorce from your spouse, you should know that doing it will be one of the most stressful things that you’ll ever have to do. It can take some time for the divorce filing process to play out, which can increase your stress levels for months and sometimes even years.
Fortunately, there are some things that you can do to make getting a divorce less stressful. You can start by steering clear of making any of the most common divorce filing errors.
We’re going to provide you with a list of some of the most common divorce filing errors today. We’re also going to talk to you about how you can avoid them so that they don’t take a huge toll on you.
Here are the eight of the divorce filing errors that you might face and tips on what you can do to stop them from having an impact on you.
1. Filing for Divorce Before You’re Committed to Doing It
Before you begin to go through the process of filing for divorce, you should do everything in your power to save your marriage. From sitting down and talking with your spouse about the issues you’re having with your marriage to going to marriage counseling, it’s important for you to exhaust every option.
If you try everything possible to save your marriage and aren’t successful, then and only then should you consider filing for divorce. Filing for divorce is very serious and shouldn’t be taken lightly. So if you’re going to do it, you’ll need to be fully committed to going through with it from the start.
2. Filing for Divorce Without Hiring a Divorce Lawyer to Help You
The cost of divorce can be substantial for some people. As a result, they’ll sometimes try to cut their divorce costs by not hiring a divorce lawyer to help them through the process.
You’re going to be making a big mistake if you do this! Even if you’ll be going through an uncontested divorce, it’ll still help to have a great divorce lawyer in your corner to keep things going smoothly.
These uncontested divorce lawyers will work wonders for you. They’ll make the divorce filing process a breeze and ensure that your divorce doesn’t drag out for any longer than it has to.
3. Filing for Divorce and Being Dishonest With Your Divorce Lawyer
When you hire a divorce lawyer to handle your divorce case, they’re going to begin by asking you a series of questions about both you and your spouse. You should try to be as open and honest with them as you can while answering each of their questions.
If you’re dishonest with your divorce lawyer, it could lead to them—and by extension, you—getting blindsided in court by the truth when it comes to your relationship with your soon-to-be ex-spouse. Being honest with your divorce lawyer might be painful at times. But it’ll be so much easier than having the truth come back to bite you later on.
4. Filing for Divorce and Attempting to Hide Some of Your Assets
Throughout the course of your divorce, your divorce lawyer, your spouse’s divorce lawyer, and, in some cases, a judge are going to work on dividing up all the assets that you and your spouse accumulated during your marriage. This is going to take a lot of work on the part of all the different parties that are involved.
If you’re bitter about having to part ways with some of your assets to your spouse, you might be tempted to try to hide them. But this is one of the worst divorce filing errors that you can make!
It’s going to be very difficult for you to hide your assets and get away with it. And if you get caught doing it, a judge isn’t going to have much mercy on you in the courtroom. It’s why you shouldn’t try to hide assets in any form or fashion.
5. Filing for Divorce and Going on a Spending Spree
If you’re going through a very messy divorce, you might be thinking about trying to do something to get back at your spouse for whatever pain they’ve caused you. Some people will attempt to do this by going on a big spending spree and wiping out their bank accounts.
This might feel good in the moment, as it’ll rile up your spouse just as you intended. But guess what? This is going to be yet another thing that a judge isn’t going to take lightly if you do it.
You might end up collecting fewer assets than your spouse at the end of your divorce proceedings if you spend a bunch of money that you were both entitled to towards the end of your marriage. You would be much better off scaling back your spending as a whole the moment that you realize you’re going to be getting divorced.
6. Filing for Divorce and Refusing to Participate in Divorce Proceedings
If you and your spouse are going to be getting divorced, you might not feel like taking part in the divorce proceedings. You might ignore documents for divorce that are sent in your direction and avoid communicating with those in the divorce court system at all costs.
This might bide you some time and delay your divorce for a little while. But eventually, it’s going to catch up to you. Dragging your feet is only going to make getting divorced that much more stressful and put you in a position of weakness when it comes to dealing with a judge in court.
Even if you aren’t happy about the fact that you’re getting divorced, you should still play an active part in the divorce proceedings and make sure that you stay on top of everything that’s going on.
7. Filing for Divorce and Not Reading Through Documents for Divorce Carefully Enough
As we just alluded to, there will be a million and one documents for divorce that will be sent in your direction when you’re going through the divorce filing process. You’ll get so many documents that they’ll start to overwhelm you.
Because of this, you might not go through these documents with a fine-toothed comb like you should. It could inevitably lead to you skipping right over some very important information. It could also lead to you signing away certain rights that you’ll have when getting divorced.
This is yet another one of the divorce filing errors that you do not want to make. You should get into the habit of reading through any and all divorce documents that are sent your way. You should also make sure that your divorce lawyer is doing the same so that you don’t miss anything important in these documents.
8. Filing for Divorce and Posting About It All Over Social Media
Are you someone who routinely overshares information when you’re using social media? You aren’t alone!
This has turned into a problem for a lot of people in this day and age. They share almost every aspect of their lives with those who follow them on social media. And while it doesn’t always have too big of an impact on them, it can hurt you if you’re sharing details about your divorce on social media.
People didn’t used to have to worry about making this particular divorce filing error. But now that almost everyone utilizes social media to some degree, it’s become a more common divorce filing error than you might think.
If you post anything that is even remotely negative about your spouse on social media, your spouse’s divorce lawyer could use it against you in court. So you should be diligent about not posting a single divorce detail on social media at any point.
Instead of taking this approach when you’re trying to work through the emotions that come along with getting divorced, you should talk only to your closest family members and friends about the divorce filing process. Or better yet, you should make an appointment with a therapist who can provide you with the professional help that you’ll need to survive your divorce.
Doing either of these things would be way better than using social media to sound off on what’s happening in your personal life while you’re going through a divorce.
Try Your Absolute Best Not to Make Any of These Critical Divorce Filing Errors
Many people will look at this list of divorce filing errors and say, “I would never do any of those things while going through a divorce!” But when you’re in the middle of a divorce, it’s often a much different story. You might act out of character and say or do something that you wouldn’t normally do because of the divorce-related stress that you feel.
You should make every effort not to make any of the divorce filing errors that we just touched on. It’ll stop your divorce from turning into a nightmare and causing you to experience even more stress than you’re already going to.
Look for more legal tips on going through the divorce filing process by browsing through the rest of our great blog articles.
Read also: 5 Signs It’s Time to Hire a Divorce Attorney