NEVER Settle Your Divorce Without Considering These Three Property Issues

If you are considering divorce, or are in the middle of one, your mind is likely racing with all of the things you have to consider when settling. No doubt you are knee deep in parenting plans, custody arrangements, child support negotiations, and arguing over who gets the couch in the living room. If you are focusing on the orders that deal with your children, you are probably focusing on the right thing. There is nothing more important than the well-being of your children. At the same time, it can be tempting to only focus on the children at the expense of all of the property issues. Here are three property issues you should never ignore.

REAL PROPERTY

In most divorces, the marital home is the largest asset the family owns. Likely you have been building equity in your home for a good portion of your marriage. It is also the place where your children are most comfortable. In my experience, many people will give away the house, or the equity in the house, in exchange for something much less valuable. Make sure to discuss with your attorney the many options available for fairly dividing the marital home, including options where the custodial parent can stay in the home for a period to allow the children to stay where they are most comfortable.

RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS

Retirement accounts are usually the next largest asset in a marriage. However, a retirement account can be even more valuable than the marital home because it will likely increase in value at a much faster rate than the marital home will. For this reason you should think twice before exchanging retirement for equity in a home. Even though splitting a retirement account will require some additional attorney fees, the growth value of a retirement account is unrivaled in a divorce. Make sure to think through your settlement of the marital retirement before signing divorce papers.

VEHICLES

In many divorces people simply take the car that they traditionally drove during the marriage. This makes sense in a lot of cases, but sometimes this results in an unfair settlement. If the wife’s car is newer, has a higher value, and fits all the kids, but has no equity, the husband’s car that is paid off and has more equity can be better to have in a divorce simply because it is worth more. An even better solution might be for the husband to take his car and the wife take her car, but for the husband to also pay the wife her half of the equity in husband’s car. This allows the wife to keep the car that holds all of the children but has not equity, without sacrificing her share of the equity in her husband’s car.

Divorces can be complicated and negotiating all of the elements of a divorce without sacrificing more than is reasonable can be a challenge. The best thing to do is to hire an attorney who specializes in divorce and custody cases; so that they can explain all of the elements to you in a way that makes it easier to understand. A good attorney will also give you instructional materials to help you better understand everything that goes into a divorce settlement.

Five Things You MUST Know Before You Hire a Divorce Lawyer

Divorce can be one of the most stressful events in your life. Dealing with divorce for the first time can seem extremely overwhelming and stressful. If you are going through a divorce usually you feel uncertain about the future because you don’t have any experience with divorce or how it works. The internet is available to most people, so you can research divorce until you realize that you are in way over their head, and that you need some help. Let’s face it, divorce requires knowledge about child support, physical custody, legal custody, retirement plans, real estate, finance, tax law, and child safety laws, which lawyers spend years studying in law school. But how do you know which attorney to choose from? Here are five things you must know before you hire a divorce lawyer:

Attorney Personality

Many people go into hiring a divorce attorney with the misconception that they need a very aggressive, angry attorney in order to get the best deal in their divorce. These attorneys are sometimes known as “Bull Dog” attorneys. You should not hire a “Bull Dog” attorney for your case for two very good reasons: First, you have to work with this attorney. Your divorce is going to last at least three months, most likely it will go on for four to six months if not longer depending on whether you can reach an agreement or not. If you hire a “Bull Dog” you will have to deal with a “Bull Dog.” A lot of times this results in less communication from your attorney, less information about your options, less involvement in the strategy of your case, and less satisfaction with the result at the end.

Second, attorneys are all trained to negotiate and advocate. Family law is extremely broad and allows for a tremendous amount of flexibility to negotiate and settle your case, which in turn saves you money. When an attorney is too aggressive at the outset of the divorce case, it results in more arguing, more legal work, more hearings, and ultimately much higher fees. In the end, the result is the same as if you had just gone to mediation and resolved the matter there. Most attorneys are happy to go to court for you and advocate extremely well for you, but you also want an attorney who can negotiate a great settlement for you for the least amount of fees possible so you can move forward with your life.

Billing Rates

Attorneys usually bill their time in six (6) minute pieces. This is pretty common among all attorneys. What varies is their hourly billing rate and their initial retainer. These amounts are very important because they can have a huge effect on your case. A retainer in Utah means a deposit. The attorney takes this money up front, and then earns it over time. For example, if Attorney A bills $250.00/hour for his/her work and requires a $2,000.00 retainer, the attorney would need to work eight (8) hours to earn the full retainer. Because the retainer is more of a deposit, how much an attorney requires is not really that important.

What you need to know is that if you hire an attorney for $250.00 per hour, and your case takes 20 hour to complete, you will have paid $5,000.00 for your divorce. But, if you hire an attorney that bills $225.00 per hour, and your case takes 20 hours to complete, then you will only pay $4,000.00 for your case. That is a difference of $500.00. Keep in mind that the attorneys who charge you a higher hourly rate are not necessarily better attorneys or more experienced. They simply charge more for the same, or sometimes worse, service.

Experience

Experience is extremely important in a divorce case. Divorce law changes frequently, and because it is based mostly on fairness, the only way to know how a certain commissioner or judge will rule in a given case is to have argued in front of those commissioners and judges in the past. Many attorneys who are just starting out practice divorce law and many firms that claim to handle divorce law take the cases only because they need the income, not because they specialize in divorce cases. When you are interviewing attorneys, make sure to find out how much of their practice deals with family law, specifically divorces. An attorney who has practiced for thirty (30) years but only handles a couple divorces a year will be less qualified than an attorney who has practiced for five (5) years but has spent their entire career handling divorce cases. For example, at Ammon Nelson Law, PLLC, family law is all we do, and divorces make up a large percentage of our case load.

Free Informational Guide

When you are interviewing attorneys for your divorce case, make sure to ask them for their free informational guide. Don’t take their word for it that they know what they are talking about. It is easy to fake it for a thirty (30) minute consultation. If they know what they are doing, they will have a free guide that they can give you that reviews what you have discussed in the consultation or gives you additional information about divorce. Don’t take their word for it, get their informational guide.

Firm Structure

Divorce lawyers handle their offices differently. Some do not have secretaries and handle all of the work themselves keeping them so busy they are unable to keep in touch with their existing clients. Other lawyers have paralegals that end up handling most of your divorce case, while the attorney plays golf. Other lawyers are so busy practicing different areas of law, they forget all about your divorce case. Look for an attorney who handles all of his/her cases without the assistance of a paralegal, but who manages a smaller case load so that they will be accessible to you. You do not want a paralegal doing all of your legal work; otherwise you wouldn’t have hired an attorney. You don’t want an over-loaded attorney, because you want your case to get the attention it deserves. You don’t want an attorney who is busy handling cases other than divorce cases because you want to be a priority. It is better to get a voice mail once in awhile when you call your attorney with a return call from your actual attorney, then to have a paralegal answer your call every time just to tell you they can’t give you legal advice.

Remember these five tips when you are interviewing your divorce lawyer so that you hire the right attorney for you and for your case.

To Download the FREE Utah Guide to Divorce, CLICK on the Guide Below!

TOP TIPS FOR APPLYING FOR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY

Applying for Social Security Disability can be an extremely daunting task. The process can require up to five different reviews, the last being a lawsuit against the Social Security Administration in Federal Court. Almost every person who calls me to help them with their Social Security Disability claim expects to be denied on the first application. Social Security denies roughly 60% of the initial applications. That means that even though the odds are against you, 40% of people who apply are accepted on their first application. Here are seven tips to improve your chances of being approved the first time:

List All Disabilities: Social Security has made the application process much simpler by making the application electronic through their website. However, the online application only allows you to list a certain number of disabilities. Don’t just leave off the rest of the disabilities, keep track of what disabilities you haven’t listed and list them at the very end of the application where the application asks for any other information that you would like to provide.
Collect All Medical Records: When you apply for Social Security Disability online, there is not a place to submit medical records. Sure, you list all of your doctors and all the facilities where you have received treatment, but that may not be enough. Social Security is supposed to request your records, but they may miss a doctor or facility. Also, your doctor may not respond to the request for records made by Social Security. You should collect your medical records and mail copies to your local Social Security office.
Ask for a Doctor Letter: Social Security processes thousands of applications, and even though their analysts and medical experts are supposed to review all of the medical records, it makes sense that they would miss key information. If your doctor’s notes are in messy hand-writing, then it is even more likely. Ask your primary care physician to write you a letter explaining your disabilities based on the tests that have been performed and the effects of those disabilities on your life and your ability to work. Then submit that letter to Social Security.
Be Clear: Like I mentioned earlier, Social Security analysts have to process thousands of applications. When you have any opportunity to explain your disability or the effect of your disability, be specific, be clear, and be brief. Sending Social Security pages of explanation may actually hurt your claim. Don’t leave anything important out, but be brief.
Find Your Medical Listing: The first test to determine if you are disabled is to see if your ailments meet what is called a medical listing. You can make this step really easy for the analyst if you look up the medical listings, and find the one that fits your ailments. Then use the exact language for the medical listing when writing your disability in the application.
Do Your Own Research: When you are listing your doctors and the medical facilities where you have received treatment, make sure to fill out the full name, address and contact information for each provider. If you don’t have the information, look it up online. If you leave it blank there is a good chance the records from that provider will not be reviewed.
Show Up For Appointments: If Social Security doesn’t feel like there is sufficient medical evidence to make a decision on your application, they might request that you see their contracted doctors. They will send you a letter stating the date and time for the appointment. Respond to that letter. If you can’t make the time listed, call your local office to reschedule it by the deadline on the letter. The evidence from that appointment can actually get your application approved your application is not approved, don’t despair. Call a qualified Social Security Disability attorney to help you with the next phases of the process. Even though many people are denied on their initial application, an additional 20% to 40% are approved in the phases of the process that follow the initial application.

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Five Things You MUST Know Before You Hire a Divorce Lawyer

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