We tried to negotiate a divorce settlement three times. All three were spectacular failures. The first took place at the start of the second day of Scott’s deposition. Scott and his attorney asked if we could begin by negotiating a number for the financial cost of his behavior. Based on the first deposition day, there
We failed at three negotiation methods: direct, direct attorney and court ordered mediation. This is not surprising as we were a “High-Conflict Divorce,” though not because we were by nature a screaming, throwing insults type of couple. Most of our relationship had been quite the opposite. However in divorce, we were high-conflict due to Scott’s
Scott and I had different views on the amount of alimony he would pay me. No surprise: his number was MUCH lower than mine. Since our negotiations were a failure, our judge would rule on my alimony. His decision would depend on Scott’s ability to pay (his income) and my expenses and lifestyle (my need).
A “regular” divorce (one without all of the extramarital drama mine had) will include several decisions that must either be negotiated or determined by the judge at trial, including How to divide the marital assets Whether alimony will be awarded and how much Child custody and child support (given the age of our girls, this was
Patrick and Marianne called Scott as an adverse witness on the afternoon of the fourth day of trial, when it became clear Scott was not going to testify on his own behalf. Patrick confronted him on his behavior right out of the box. Patrick: Mr. Williams, between the date of your marriage and the date
The lessons I learned in this chapter of my journey reinforced earlier themes. I. The Right Lawyer The most important reinforcement was to trust my lawyers. Of course, I wanted to understand their trial strategy. They respected me enough to be clear (and not condescending) about the best approach to get what we wanted, which
The judge handed down his decision on June 31, 2015, four months after the trial’s end. I did particularly well in the distribution of our marital assets. My alimony was disappointing and frankly confusing. After the equal split of our assets, Scott would repay half of the dissipation amount as we had agreed before trial.
Your divorce agreement is ready to sign or your lawyer has just sent you the judge’s decision. For good or bad, you think your divorce marathon is finally over. Not so fast! You owe it to yourself to FULLY UNDERSTAND either your divorce agreement or the judgment handed down by the court. There may be further
I sold the house in spring of 2016 and left Massachusetts one month after my youngest daughter graduated from high school. I had come full circle. I couldn’t leave in the beginning of our difficulties. When I finally felt able to, I couldn’t get out of town fast enough. I lived the vagabond life for a year