What Should I Bring To My Initial Consultation With My Florida Divorce Lawyer?
It can be intimidating to think of all the things you need to do when going through a divorce. For many folks, simply meeting with a divorce lawyer is enough to raise alarms. You will likely have numerous questions. You may not even know where to begin. For your initial consultation, you likely won’t need to provide your lawyer with any documents, unless you have a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement. Then, it would be beneficial for your lawyer to review the terms of the document to know where you stand.
Nonetheless, the initial consultation is very important since the information you provide will help your attorney assess your case, understand your goals, and explain the process of divorce to you. Your attorney may provide advice based on what you say. Only after learning more about your case and reviewing your documents can your attorney provide any specific advice. In this article, the Tampa, FL divorce lawyers at Faulkner Law Group, PLLC, will discuss what your lawyer might ask you to bring to a consultation.
Your prior or existing case file
If you ended up switching lawyers during the divorce process, and another lawyer was working on your case, it would be helpful to your new attorney to be able to review what work has been done so far. Later in the process, your attorneys would need to obtain your case file. The case file will likely already be online, and your former attorney could just forward it to your current attorney via Dropbox or OneDrive.
Issues related to your children
Your attorney will ask you to complete a questionnaire and provide information on your children. It would be exceedingly important to know if there are any current or past court orders concerning custody, visitation, child support, or any informal arrangement you have with your spouse regarding your children.
Assets and liabilities
You’ll want to review your financial documents and put a list together of how much you have in your bank accounts, retirement accounts, or other financial accounts. In addition, you will want to include other assets, properties, and debts that you’re aware of. Giving your lawyer a general idea of where you stand with our marital assets and liabilities is all that is necessary to know during your initial consultation.
Your lawyer will likely need more information as your case progresses. It’s not necessary for your attorney to have a comprehensive and perfect knowledge of your assets and liabilities during the first consultation. That will come later during the discovery process.
Talk to a Tampa, FL Family Lawyer Today
Faulkner Law Group, PLLC, represents the interests of Tampa residents who are pursuing a divorce. Call our Tampa family lawyers today to schedule a consultation, and we can begin discussing what you’ll need to bring right away.
