1. Remember that your attorney is not your therapist.
Clients will often spend hours venting to their attorney by telling them every emotional detail regarding their marital history that isn’t relevant to the divorce process. And although your attorney wants to be empathic and help you emotionally through this process, they’re billing you by the hour. You’ll end up paying a high rate to have your attorney listen to you rant about what your future ex did and said last night.
The same goes for email. Before you write long emails and spend hours on calls with your attorney, be mindful of whether or not the conversation is appropriate for your attorney, your therapist, or your BFF.
2. Don’t lean on your friends for legal advice.
Keep in mind that it’s doubtful that your divorce process was the same as a friend of yours. Circumstances and finances are different for everyone, and everyone’s outcome is most likely different. Your friend who got a certain amount of child support and has the same amount of children as you doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily get the same amount. Again, circumstances vary from case to case, and many factors play into any financial and parenting plan decisions.
Also, friends of yours that have never been divorced, we highly encourage you to keep discussions at your case to a minimum. Your non-divorced friend will want to be helpful, but the family law attorney they saw on TikTok cannot help you from a one minute video.
3. Almost everything is discoverable!
Think before you send that text, search for something scandalous on Google, or post something on social media. It IS possible that your ex could hire an expert to search your phone records and search history.
Think you’re safe by deleting texts? Nope. Deleted texts, photos, and more are still discoverable by experts and could be disclosed to the other party and the court. A good rule of thumb is to think, “What if a judge were to read this?” That’ll help you calibrate your thoughts before you hit “send” or before you post on social media.
Hopefully, these truths will help you along the way during your divorce process, but as always, should you need assistance for your divorce, please reach out to us at 407-403-5990 or email us at info@heskinmartinezlaw.com or fill out the info below.
