Dealing with Divorce Pitfalls
Ending any relationship is often difficult and very emotional. Paired with the legal process of a divorce, the situation can be made even more complicated. Navigating your way through the complexity of a divorce isn't something to be taken lightly, as you can easily find yourself hitting pitfalls that you must work to overcome. Divorce pitfalls can come from all angles and aspects of your situation, making it important to stay alert and focused on finding the best ways to handle issues in order to settle your case wisely. Here are some common divorce pitfalls that many individuals easily find themselves facing and ways that they might be overcome.
Letting emotions get in the way of your decisions. As already stated, a divorce is a tough process that often causes waves of different emotions to hit you from all directions. One of the more difficult pitfalls of divorce to overcome is allowing these emotions to dictate the decisions you make. Feelings like anger, fear, and sadness can all have an influence on your decision-making skills, and not recognising this can have harmful consequences. The choices you make during this time can have considerable weight on your future, but overwhelming emotions can cloud judgement and cause you to take actions you might not normally take. This could leave you wishing you hadn't done something and could take it back later on.
Before you let your emotions create a pitfall in your divorce, seek out ways to overcome what you are feeling in order to make sensible decisions. Talking about how you are feeling helps you to release tension that might be building up inside of you. Spend time with close friends and relatives whom you trust and can speak your mind to. Also, consider speaking to a professional such as a therapist who is trained to help people find ways to work through emotions. Finally, work with your lawyer to weigh the pros and cons of the many decisions you are facing. Don't hesitate to consult your lawyer before making any decisions that could impact your future.
Not realising the impact of social media. Your various social media accounts create a way for you to express yourself and to keep your friends and family in the loop about what is going on in your life. While your photos and comments might seem trivial to you, the courts may not see it the same way. Social media creates divorce pitfalls for a few reasons. One reason being that photos, comments or other postings on your various accounts have the potential to be used as evidence in your case. For example, a recent news report from ABC Action News in Tampa, Florida tells of a situation in which a photo posted on social media had a great impact on party's request to modify child support payments. Images of the party in question surfaced and ended up working against their request being granted. Another reason why social media creates pitfalls in divorce is that it can easily stir the emotional pot. Perusing the Facebook or Twitter pages of a former partner can incite feelings of jealousy, resentment, or even a longing for things to go back to the way they were before. Putting yourself in a situation that creates these feelings is not a healthy way to move forward in life during and after divorce.
For these reasons, it is important to understand the impact of social media on your divorce case as well as on your emotions. Consider temporarily shutting down your accounts during the time that your divorce case is being settled. Some social media outlets have a way for you to close your account temporarily and re-open it at a later date without having to delete it completely. This will help to prevent you from creating new posts or allowing others to post things on your pages. If you choose not to close your accounts during this time, be careful of how you use them. Keeping your pages private can help to prevent some people from viewing them, but that does not mean that your information is completely unavailable to prying eyes. For that reason, carefully monitor and curate your pages. Don't allow others to tag you in photos or post comments on your pages that could be harmful. Also, don't allow yourself to be stuck in the pitfall of letting your former partner's social media postings affect your emotions. If they do post something that could concern your divorce case, bring it to the attention of your lawyer. Online harassment can be a serious problem for some during and after a divorce. Blocking your former partner's social media accounts can help to prevent that person from posting harassing comments or other messages on your pages that are emotionally harmful. If doing this doesn't stop the harassment from happening on other pages or through other mediums, immediately bring it to the attention of your lawyer.
Lack of documentation. The importance of documentation may not dawn upon many people until the time in which it actually matters, but this can create a huge pitfall to overcome during and after your divorce. The documentation you provide to your lawyer during your case can have weight on the outcome, so your lawyer will likely ask you for some records. This can range from personal records like your birth and marriage certificates to financial documents like credit card statements and property deeds, to photos and communication records between you and your ex-spouse. While you might have access to most of this information, communication records can often be difficult to compile for a few reasons. First, written communication through means like email or text messages have the potential to be easily manipulated or mindlessly deleted. Second, communication by phone or in person is hard to properly document and can create situations in which an argument takes place. Because of these reasons, many divorcing parties often find themselves in a "he said, she said" battle which is frustrating for you, your counsel and the court. If you can avoid these communication pitfalls and have all of the documentation you need to support your case, you may have better chances of receiving an outcome that you are content with.
During and after the time that your case is settled, communicate with your ex-spouse through a means will thoroughly document what was said by whom and when. The OurFamilyWizard® website provides a message board that meticulously documents communication between divorcing parties. All messages sent through the website will detail when they were sent as well as when they were each first viewed by their recipient. This tool will accurately capture and preserve these messages indefinitely without allowing the communications to be manipulated in any way. These records can by easily shared with one's lawyer directly through the website via OurFamilyWizard Professional Access, and they can also be printed individually or in a report of several messages. The OurFamilyWizard® website helps to create a clear, accurate record of communication between divorcing parties.
Divorce pitfalls can sometimes be a challenge to deal with. By recognising where they lie and dealing with them in healthy ways, you can overcome the pitfalls and make it through your case with less added drama and more results that you are satisfied with.