The other day a women called me and wanted to get some advice about how she should proceed with her divorce. She had been married for 20 years during which time she stayed home and raised children while her husband worked full time making around 500,000 dollars a year. She had recently gone back to school, started to work and was making 34,000 a year. They still had two children at home that were teenagers. Her husband wanted to mediate the divorce and wanted to split everything 50/50.

She said that her husband did not want to spend money on the divorce and she felt that she did not want to either. An understandable position. However, there are some cases where it is important to invest in getting to a fair settlement, an equitable settlement. In my opinion the scenario above is one of those cases.

Splitting up a marital estate in Colorado is to be done "equitably" which does not necessarily mean equally. Maintenance is given or not given by the courts based on a "reasonable needs" test. As you can see both of these standards allow for a lot of latitude in a court's decision. What is "equitable" or fair and what is "reasonable" are interpretations of the facts and there are no formulas to follow. If your case did end up in court, you would want a strong advocate to present the facts and your position to the court.

So, before going to a mediation, if that is what the couple chooses to do, the wife needs to spend the time and money to get a good idea of what her position might look like if she were to end up before a court. Then she can go into the mediation fully prepared and educated.

No settlement discussions or mediation should take place before all financial information required under Colorado statutes has been exchanged. Once the petition for divorce is filed there is a 40 day period from the date the other party is served where financial information must be exchanged. Financial Affidavits will have to be filed with the court during this time period. Once the full financial picture is disclosed, you need to sit down with your attorney and decide if there is a need for a financial expert to work with the numbers to come up with an equitable settlement offer. These financial experts are often called Certified Divorce Financial Analysts and their expert testimony is very valuable if you had to go to court. You may also need to have an expert hired to assess the value of a business or do some other form of investigative accounting. This type of pre work will allow you to enter into negotiations or mediation with full disclosure and the information you need to come to an equitable settlement.

Working with your attorney and a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst or other expert may look like you are spending quite a bit of money up front, but it can be a very worthwhile investment in the long run if you can come to an informed and equitable settlement rather than going into negotiations less prepared.

This is not true in every case, but for those cases where there has been a long term marriage, a large discrepancy in income, significant assets and a spouse who has a substantial income,it can be the one key investment that supports the long term well being of the party earning significantly less or who has no income in the marriage.

If the facts of your case seem to fit with the above example, it is a wise idea to seek legal advise before negotiating any settlement with your spouse.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Divorce: Maintenance (Alimony), Divorce: Property Settlement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.