Agreed Divorce

At Guest and Gray Law Firm we get many Rockwall and Rockwall county residents in our office to discuss the possibility of getting a divorce. There are many questions that potential clients ask me in an initial divorce consultation. But the only question that gets asked in each and every one is this: How much is this going to cost?

There are a few basic costs that are going to apply to every case. For example, there will always be the cost of the time it takes me to draft and file a petition for divorce. There will always be a filing fee that has to be paid to the court. And there will almost always be the cost of paying a process server to serve the other party to the divorce. But from that point on, it’s really up to you.

Once the initial steps are taken, the main factor in how much a divorce will cost is how much the parties are going to fight. The more the parties fight, the more work the attorney has to do. More paperwork must be done; the attorney must spend more time in settlement negotiations and in the court room. The more clients disagree, the more the attorney works.

The easiest way to get a cheap divorce is to get an agreed divorce and do the attorney’s work for them instead of fighting. When hired by a client in a divorce, my job is to get them what they want. And when a client comes into my office and tells me that they have come to an agreement with their spouse, it’s a lot easier to get them what they want, and it takes a lot less time. At that point, all that I have to do is draft a proper divorce decree that adequately divides the assets and debts of the parties and have that agreement signed by a judge.

The long and short of it is this: Agreed divorce = cheap divorce.

So if you and your spouse are on good terms, or even just on speaking terms, and you want to get divorced for as little cost as possible, sit down and see if you come to an agreement on how to split up your assets and debts before meeting with an attorney. If you can do that, you’ve already done half of the work yourself.

There are three main issues that you must come to an agreement on: assets, debts and children (if you have any).

The most typical types of assets that need to be divided in a divorce are the following:

• Homes
• Funds in bank accounts
• Vehicles
• Retirement benefits
• Insurance policies
• Stocks, bonds, mutual fund accounts
• Small businesses
• Household items
• Jewelry

The most typical type of debts that need to be divided in a divorce are the following:

• Mortgages
• Car Payments
• Credit card debt
• Tax liabilities

The issues regarding children that need to be decided are the following:

• Which parent will have the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the child(ren)?
  • This is what is normally thought of as custody
• Is the primary residence of the children to be limited to a certain county or counties?
• What kind of visitation schedule will the non-custodial parent have?
  • Standard visitation is 6:00 p.m. Friday to 6:00 p.m. Sunday on the 1st, 3rd and 5th weekends of each month with additional visitation from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays.
    • This visitation schedule also includes provisions for summer possession and alternating holidays.
• How much child support will the non-custodial parent pay?
  • The guidelines provide that the non-custodial parent should pay 20% of their income as child support if they have one child, 25% for two, 30% for three, 35% for four, 40% for five and not less than 40% for six or more.
• Who will carry health insurance for the child(ren)?

If you can come to an agreement on any of those issues that apply to you, the cost of your divorce will be much cheaper. I would be happy to sit down with you and discuss the terms of your agreement and make sure that there are no other issues to deal with. And I would be happy to handle your agreed divorce in a quick, cost-efficient manner.

Call Rockwall, Texas Family Lawyers at (972)564-4644 about your Rockwall County Agreed Divorce.

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