It’s hard enough dealing with your separation or divorce without having to worry about actually going to family court to solve your family law issues.
That’s the number one advantage of negotiating a separation agreement to resolve the family law issues in your case.
When you negotiate a separation agreement with your spouse, you avoid the emotionally-draining and costly process of solving your family law issues in court.
What is a separation agreement? A separation agreement is a written agreement that sets out how you and your former spouse will deal with the important issues in your separation.
These issues include custody of your children, access to your children, child support, spousal support and property issues, such as the matrimonial home.
However, you cannot protect your legal rights in a separation agreement unless you get full financial disclosure from your spouse. You and your spouse must prepare a detailed financial statement in which you set out your income, monthly expenses, assets and debts. You also want to make sure your spouse provides the documents that verify the information in their financial statement.
You must not try to negotiate a separation on your own without the assistance of an experienced family law and divorce lawyer. If you don’t use a veteran family lawyer, you can easily end up with a poorly-drafted separation agreement that does not protect your legal rights.
Scan this article to discover the key benefits and advantages of working with an experienced family law and divorce lawyer.
Your family lawyer will advise you about what are reasonable terms that should be put in your separation agreement. Should you have sole custody or joint custody of your children? How much spousal support, if any, should be paid in your particular case? How should you deal with your home? Do you need to sell your home or can you keep it? Your family lawyer will give you the answers to these important questions in your family law case.
You should usually expect your spouse to want certain changes to your proposed separation agreement. Both spouses must have some “give-and-take” to reach a final settlement of their family law matters in a separation agreement.
To get started on getting an effective separation agreement that protects your legal rights, call the office of Thomas O’Malley now at (905) 434-8837.
When you have separated from your spouse, what do you do to protect your legal rights in your separation or divorce? You have two choices. You can go to court to fight over the issues in your case or you can try to settle the issues in your case in a separation agreement.
If a case goes to court, this means that one spouse started a family law lawsuit against the other spouse to deal with the issues in the case. The family law issues, such as child custody and access, child support, spousal support, and property issues, will be decided in court by a judge at a trial if the case does not settle before a trial is held.
A separation agreement is a legal contract signed by you and your spouse that deals with all issues in your separation or divorce: child custody, access to children, child support, spousal support, and property issues. The spouses negotiate a separation agreement by reviewing each issue in their particular situation until they reach an agreement on each issue and then everything that is agreed upon is placed in a written agreement
A separation agreement can be used whether you are married to your spouse or you were in a common-law relationship with your spouse.
The best approach is to solve your family law issues is to negotiate a separation agreement as opposed to going to family court. The first advantage is that negotiating a separation agreement in most cases is faster in dealing with the family law issues in your case than going to court.
The next advantage is that a separation agreement is much cheaper than going to court. A full-blown court case that goes to trial can cost $10,000, or $20,000 or even more if there are complex issues in the case. In contrast, a separation agreement only costs approximately $1,500 to $7,000.
Another advantage of a separation agreement is the terms of a separation agreement are just as legally valid and enforceable as a court judgment dealing with the same issues
A separation agreement gives the spouses much more flexibility in dealing with issues in their situation. You can be much more creative in dealing with child custody, access to the children and property issues by dealing with these issues in a separation agreement rather than going to court.
In contrast, a judge in a court case will not make a judgment that carefully crafts in great detail how to deal with child custody, access to the children, and the property issue as much as you and your former spouse can in a well-drafted separation agreement.
You can see that a separation agreement has great advantages over going to court to deal with your separation or divorce issues. Therefore, you should give serious consideration to negotiating a separation agreement before you go to court.
However, if you can honestly say that your spouse would never sign a separation agreement as a result of the high level of tension and hostility between you and your spouse, you should probably skip trying to do a separation agreement and simply go to court from the start.
Another way to know that you should go to court first rather than trying to negotiate a separation agreement is that there are one or two issues that you and your spouse just cannot seem to agree on. One such issue could be sole custody versus joint custody.
These issues that just cannot be negotiated are “deal breakers.” When you have these deal breakers, you just will not get a separation agreement signed. Therefore, you should go to court to deal with the issues in your separation or divorce.
When you sign a separation agreement with your spouse, you now have what is sometimes called a “legal separation” from your spouse. In other words, you have dealt with the legal issues in your separation in your separation agreement even though you are still legally married to your spouse until you and your spouse are divorced.
Clearly you can see the benefits of getting the help of an experienced family lawyer to negotiate a separation agreement with your spouse. Call Thomas O’Malley, an accomplished family lawyer, at (905) 434-8837 today to get started on solving your family law issues with a solid separation agreement.
Imagine what it would it be like when you and your former spouse have a completed separation agreement.
Clearly, you’re much more likely to get a finalized separation agreement that solves your family law issues and keeps you out of family court when you have an accomplished family law and divorce lawyer working for you to get a completed separation agreement.
You’ve certainly come to the right place to solve your separation and divorce legal issues. When you come to your initial consultation with Thomas O’Malley, an experienced family law and divorce lawyer, you’ll find out the details you need to know to protect your family law rights with a separation agreement.
There’s no substitute for the advice of a talented family law and divorce lawyer. Call Thomas O’Malley now at (905) 434-8837 to set up your initial consultation. There’s no better time than right now.
In just a short while you can be on the road to settling your family law issues with a separation agreement that protects you family law rights.
It’s no secret you want to settle your family law issues with your spouse and move on with your life.
Just imagine a final settlement on all the important issues in your separation or family law case. Looks really good, doesn’t it?
Now you can get this final settlement by negotiating a critical family law document called a separation agreement with your spouse. A separation agreement is a legally-binding document in which you and your former spouse agree on the answers to all the key issues in your separation or divorce. These issues include who has custody of the children, the amount of child and spousal support paid, what to do with the house, and other important issues in your life.
When Thomas O’Malley, an experienced family law and divorce lawyer in Durham Region, negotiates a separation agreement for you, he makes sure your family law rights are protected and you get a fair and reasonable settlement.
And don’t forget this…when you negotiate a separation agreement with Mr. O’Malley’s help, you can avoid all the headaches and costs of family law court.
When you come to your initial consultation with Thomas O’Malley, you will get all the details and advice you must have to get an effective separation agreement. Call his office now at (905) 434-8837 to set up your consultation.
Here are the key steps to successfully reaching a settlement with your former spouse with a separation agreement:
Are you beginning to see how you can settle your family law issues with your spouse when you have the help of experienced family law and divorce lawyer Thomas O’Malley?
Picture yourself with that signed separation agreement in your hands.
Clearly you can see the benefits of using a skilled Durham Region family law and divorce lawyer to help you get a signed separation agreement that protects your legal rights and helps you move on with your life.
Call Thomas O’Malley now at (905) 434-8837 to schedule your appointment. Get started now on solving your family law issues with a solid separation agreement that protects your legal rights. There’s no better time than right now.
A word of caution: Your spouse must co-operate to get a separation agreement that solves or settles you family law issues. When you come to your initial consultation with Mr. O’Malley, he gives you excellent guidance on whether you can reach an agreement with your former spouse.
Here’s something else you should know about: in most cases, expect to have some “back and forth” or negotiating about the specific terms of the separation agreement. This is simply part of the process of getting a good separation agreement.
Most importantly, however, is the end result: You get a solid separation agreement that protects your family law rights so that you can move on with your life.