Contested divorce occurs when the parties cannot agree on the terms that must be settled before they are granted a divorce. This might be whether they should be divorced at all, the grounds of the divorce, division of assets, allocation of debt, spousal maintenance, child custody, child visitation or child support. In an uncontested divorce, the parties reach agreement, and there is no need to resort to the litigation of a contested divorce. Marriages where the people have a lot of valuable assets to divide, the couple have become hostile, or they disagree about the children are often likely to end in contested divorce. If you think your divorce will be contested, you should immediately consult with a Bronx contested divorce lawyer so they can protect your interests.
Contested divorces have a tendency to settle on the courthouse steps. So though the parties may then submit an agreement to the court in what has technically become an uncontested divorce, the parties have still spent a lot of time and legal fees to get to that point. However, since they have reached an agreement, one of the spouses is not going to appeal as could happen if the case went all the way to trial. Your Bronx attorney and your spouse’s attorney will try to reach a settlement rather than go through with a contested divorce, but at the same time they must prepare for litigation with all the stress and expense that entails.
Preparing for trial involves your Bronx contested divorce lawyer asking for and responding to discovery requests. You will have to provide detailed financial and personal information which will be a matter of public record if you go to trial. That means if you have a business, all your competitors will easily be able to find all the financial details of your business. Personal and private information will also be made public. Your lawyer will want to call expert witnesses and possibly character witnesses, and will need to prepare these witnesses for trial while time and fees escalate. Analyzing the value of the couple’s property and their finances can also be extremely painstaking.
Litigation is an adversarial process, and it pits spouses against each other. This can have long-term, deleterious effects on their relationship, and that relationship is important if the couple have children. They will need to cooperate with each other until the children are grown, and that can be very difficult following a contested divorce.
But one of the worse parts of contested divorce is that if you cannot reach an agreement, and you go to trial, you are handing control over to a judge to decide the most important elements of your life. Your contested divorce attorney can influence the judge, but ultimately the judge sitting in your Bronx courtroom makes the decision. And once child custody, child visitation, child support and spousal maintenance are decided, they can be difficult to change. It is much better in the long run if both spouses can reach agreement even if it takes some work to do so. If you find yourself in a situation where you cannot agree with your spouse, but you think there could be hope to do so, you may want to consider a collaborative divorce. In collaborative divorce, both spouses are represented by specially trained collaborative divorce attorneys, and both parties work together in a communicative, transparent matter in order to reach agreement and get an uncontested divorce.
Should you need to get a contested divorce, however, get the best Bronx contested divorce lawyer you can find. If you try to represent yourself in a contested divorce, it is exactly the same as trying to represent yourself in any other litigation. Unless you are a divorce attorney admitted to the New York bar, you do not know the law or have the needed experience to make good judgment calls. In an attempt to save on legal fees, you could easily lose everything.
The Effect of a Prenuptial or Postnuptial AgreementIf you have a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, the judge will be guided by that, although it is always possible for one of the parties to challenge it on grounds such as fraud or coercion. These agreements usually cover property matters, but often don’t cover issues concerning children such as child custody, visitation and support. However, if you have a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, you are several steps ahead of couples who don’t in terms of your likelihood of reach agreement on all issues and being able to get an uncontested divorce.
Bronx Contested Divorce LawyerContested divorce is expensive, time-consuming and emotionally draining. If you can reach an agreement with your spouse and get an uncontested divorce, it is usually in everyone’s best interests. Your contested divorce attorney can advise you how a Bronx judge is likely to rule in order to come to agreement with your spouse. The attorneys at the Law Offices of Stephen Bilkis & Associates have years of experience successfully representing clients who are seeking a divorce, legal separation or annulment. We also represent clients on issues related to custody, child support and spousal support. Contact us at 800.696.9529 to schedule a free, no obligation consultation regarding your case. We represent clients in the following locations: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, Manhattan, Nassau County, Queens, Staten Island, Suffolk County and Westchester County.