Divorce Lawyer: How Your Client May Be Effected

For a divorce lawyer, it is well-known that a family breakup will greatly affect both spouses’ finances, but it is not defined exactly in many law textbooks. There are a number of things that have a lot of family breakup will have a lot of affect on, and clients often ask about them.

One of the largest and most impactful areas you may find that your clients could be affected is with regard to health care. In some places, you could find that once the legal process of ending the marriage goes through, that you are no longer able to remain on a spouse’s health care. In other instances, particularly if you are able to get spousal support beyond the date of marital dissolution, you may request that the court require that your former spouse pays for you healthcare as long as you have a need for it, insufficient resources to pay for it, and that your spouse has the ability to pay. A divorce lawyer can typically explain how best to approach this topic.

Beyond the financial effects of a breakup, there are psychological effects. It is frequently heard that going through a family breakup can be similar to losing a close loved one. This applies, however, mostly to contested cases. For the most thoroughly fought breakups, it is probable that your clients are going through worse feelings than losing a family member, as they can be really tough to go through.

As a divorce lawyer helping clients with this process, it is important to make sure that your clients are able to recover as best that they can. Part of this can include advising your clients to cancel their joint accounts so that the other spouse does not ruin your client’s credit. Another option is getting injunctions against the alienation or destruction against the funds of the other spouse. This can be a good idea, even though such injunctions may just simply be civil in nature because they could provide the remedy of contempt were the other party to violate it. 

The options that you face with regard to your mortgage and your home can be complex. It can sometimes be difficult to refinance the home just in the other spouse’s name alone. This means that your name could still be on the home, even if you are no longer considered an owner. However, if your client decides to stay in the home, it could be that you will have to pay taxes on any increase in value that the home has experienced since the time that you two purchased it. It can be difficult to impossible for a divorce lawyer to factor in such a potential increased tax liability because it is generally unknown at the time of the division of the property what the house will sell for and how that compares to the purchase price.

The above material is intended for information purposes only. It is not intended as professional legal advice and should not be construed as such. Attorney William H. Beaumont practices in New Orleans, La.