Take a look at the December 2014 issue of Huntersville Magazine featuring Adkins Law PLLC. Adkins Law PLLC is located in Huntersville, North Carolina and primarily serves Mecklenburg County and the Lake Norman area. If you need to speak with a divorce attorney, traffic attorney, or estate planning attorney, contact Adkins Law PLLC.
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If you know you are in a dead relationship and are planning to get a divorce, there are a number of things you need to understand and plan for. Under North Carolina law, to get a divorce, you are required to live separate and apart for a year and a day. This separation period must be continuous and requires that the parties live in different residences. Additionally, at least one party must have lived in the state for at least six months prior to filing for the divorce. Before filing for divorce, however, it is extremely important that the parties have divided up their property and determined any potential alimony. Any claim for equitable distribution, or property division, must be made prior to the divorce being finalized or a court will have no authority to divide the property. The same is true for alimony. If a claim for alimony is not made before a divorce is finalized, no claim for alimony may be made in the future. A court would not have the authority to enter such an order. For this reason, it is very common for parties to enter into a separation agreement before they are divorced. Most commonly, a separation agreement covers property division and alimony. Separation agreements may also discuss child custody and child support. For most parties, its beneficial to enter into a separation agreement because it saves them money (no drawn out attorney and litigation expenses) and gives them more control over what is in the agreement (the parties determine the terms of the agreement, not a judge). If you are considering a divorce, it is highly recommended that you seek a consultation with a divorce attorney. Whether you decide to use an attorney or handle your own case, a consultation with a divorce attorney can at least give you information on your rights and what direction you need to take. If you would like to schedule a consultation with a divorce attorney, contact Adkins Law. Adkins Law is located in Huntersville NC and serves Mecklenburg County and the Lake Norman area. How do I get a divorce? This is a common question for people seeking the services of a divorce attorney. North Carolina is a no-fault divorce jurisdiction. This basically means that you do not need a reason to seek a divorce. Statutorily, to file for divorce in North Carolina, you must have lived separate and apart for at least a year and a day, and have resided in North Carolina for at least 6 months before filing for divorce. Before considering divorce it is highly recommended that you seek a consultation with a divorce attorney. Divorce can be very simple or very complicated. Typically, the longer a couple has been married, the more assets they have acquired and the more likely they have children. Assets and children are often the primarily litigious issues in divorce. During a consultation, a divorce attorney can assist you in developing a strategy for protecting yourself, separating, asserting any claims you may have, and filing for divorce. Understand that once a husband and wife separate, certain claims must be filed before the divorce is finalized or they are lost forever. This mainly comes into play when we are talking about alimony and equitable distribution. If no claims are made for these issues before the divorce is finalized, the claims will not exist. A divorce attorney can help determine what actions you need to file and when you need to file them. Once you have hired a divorce attorney that works well for you, have an honest consultation to determine the best strategy to take during the divorce. Although this is an extremely stressful situation for you, your divorce attorney likely deals with divorce issues on a daily basis and may be able to provide you with sound advice concerning your divorce. Once you’ve developed a sound strategy concerning your divorce, do your best to abide by this. Although this may be hard, the majority of divorces end in separation agreement with the parties consenting to stipulations concerning the divorce. Thus, if applicable to your situation, consider the fact that negotiations and consent agreements are preferable in divorce. This saves both sides money, time, stress, privacy, and gives more control over the decisions that are made. If you are considering divorce and need to speak with a divorce attorney concerning the divorce process in Mecklenburg County, please contact Adkins Law to schedule a consultation. Adkins Law is located in Huntersville and primarily serves Huntersville, the Lake Norman area, and the greater Charlotte area. In North Carolina, to get a divorce, you must live separate and apart for at least a year and a day. This means that someone has to move out of the marital home. But who should move out of the house? Usually, the party who wants to separate, and who has initiated the divorce process, is the party that moves out. Unless living with your spouse has become violent or absolutely unbearable, you really need to think before you move out. Moving out can be very expensive! Of course, divorce is expensive and someone eventually has to move out anyways. Once you move out, not only will you be responsible for an additional mortgage or rent payments, you will have additional utility payments, transportation expenses, and additional expenses concerning any children. Consider now, for example, that you’ll also have to furnish your new residence, which may be very expensive, especially if you have to purchase additional bedroom furniture for children. Moving out also leads to stress with your spouse about who covers what expense. The spouse who remains in the marital home, for example, will most likely still expect the spouse who moved out to contribute to the mortgage, utility bills, grocery bills, etc. This may lead to arguing and stress with your spouse. You must also consider how you are going to deal with co-parenting now that you have two households. Divorce impacts children hard. Not only are their parents living apart now, the children are learning how to live in more than one residence. The parents are also adjusting to sharing the children and the additional responsibilities that come along with maintaining two households for their children. This can be stressful and difficult. Additionally, you must be careful not to date before you move out. If one party hasn’t moved out of the house, the parties are not separated. If the parties are not separated, you cannot date. If you do date before one party moves out, this may affect alimony. When you are considering divorce, speak to a divorce attorney before you begin to date. Obviously, someone has to move out in a divorce. Before you decide to move out, take time to consider the implications. This is going to affect you financially and emotionally. This will also have an extreme impact on children. Divorce is not easy. Seek a consultation with a divorce attorney before you consider moving out of the marital home. A divorce attorney will be able to give you legal advice as to how you should proceed based on your situation. If you need legal counsel concerning divorce, please contact Adkins Law to speak to a divorce lawyer. Adkins Law is located in Huntersville and primarily serves Mecklenburg County and the Lake Norman area. Picking a divorce attorney can be difficult. Like selecting a doctor, accountant, or any other type of professional, you must ensure that the relationship works for both of you. Your divorce attorney is someone that you can confide in and discuss matters honestly and completely. Thus, your divorce attorney needs to be someone you are comfortable with and someone you trust. Referrals from friends, advertisements, and Internet searches are all good places to start looking for a divorce attorney. You should consider a few that you find and give them a call to determine their availability, pricing, and arrange a consultation. After speaking with the attorney, consider whether you’re a good fit for each other and whether the pricing seems reasonable before you hire him or her. No one can guarantee results. This is true in any professional field. If someone tells you otherwise they are probably misleading you. You must be able to judge for yourself whether you think you and your attorney are a good match and can work together to resolve your issues. If you would like to speak to a divorce attorney in Huntersville NC, please contact Adkins Law. Adkins Law is located in Huntersville and primarily serves Mecklenburg County and the Lake Norman area. If Adkins Law is unable to assist you, we will help you find the best divorce attorney for your needs. Divorce can lead to the worst in people. One dirty divorce strategy is conflicting out attorneys to prevent your spouse from retaining representation. Typically, this is done by scheduling consultations with several reputable divorce attorneys and sharing confidential information with them. Once a certain amount of confidential information is shared with the attorney, an attorney-client relationship is formed, which prevents the attorney from representing the other spouse. Consider this situation, for example: John and Jane live in a small town and decide they are going to separate and seek a divorce. In this town, it is well know that Mike, Tim, and Sam are the most reputable divorce attorneys. John seeks consultations with Mike, Tim, and Sam and shares confidential information with all of them. John then decides to hire Mike as his attorney. Jane is now prevented from hiring Tim or Sam. Instead, Jane must either seek a less reputable attorney or seek an attorney from a different town. Although John could have legitimately been seeking the best attorney possible, he could also have been seeking to prevent Jane from hiring a reputable attorney. While this is easier to do in a small town, it is also easy to do with the most reputable divorce attorneys in any location. If you believe your spouse is attempting to do this, you need to take steps quickly to find and hire a reputable divorce attorney. If you need legal counsel concerning a divorce, contact Adkins Law to schedule a consultation with a divorce attorney. Adkins Law is located in Huntersville and primarily serves Mecklenburg County and the Lake Norman area. Divorce can get messy, especially when money and children are involved. One popular divorce trick is hiding income. Hiding income may potentially lead to a reduction in child support and alimony. When a couple divorces, alimony may be granted if there is a supporting / dependent relationship. This basically means that one spouse makes a lot more money than the other spouse. If alimony is awarded, the award will be based on a number of factors, including the amount of money the supporting spouse makes. In order for the supporting spouse to reduce his or her alimony payments, they may purposely divert money from their paycheck somewhere else or purposely quit or change their employment status. If the supporting spouse can show that this was done for legitimate reasons, they may not be required to pay as much in child support or alimony. The dependent spouse has to prove that the supporting spouse is purposely hiding income in order to have a successful action. If you are considering divorce, schedule a consultation with a divorce attorney. A divorce attorney can help you review your situation, explain divorce law, and help you determine whether your spouse may be hiding income. If you would like to schedule a consultation with a divorce attorney in Lake Norman, please contact Adkins Law. Adkins Law is located in Huntersville and primarily serves Mecklenburg County and the Lake Norman area. Contact Adkins Law if you need to speak with an experienced Huntersville divorce attorney. Do I need an attorney to get a divorce? No, you don’t need an attorney to get a divorce. You really don’t need an attorney to do anything. You can proceed in handling your divorce pro se, meaning on your on. Should I hire an attorney to get a divorce? Yes, in almost all situations you should hire an attorney to assist you with your divorce. Unless you have already lived separate and apart for several years and simply need to file the paperwork, there are a lot of issues that come up when a married couple separates. Several claims such as alimony and equitable distribution must be made before the divorce is finalized or they are lost forever. A divorce attorney in Lake Norman can help review the specific circumstances of your case, help you understand the laws regarding your situation, and help you develop a plan for moving forward. How do I hire a divorce attorney? You need to do your research. I would recommend using the Internet to find several divorce attorneys in your area. Once you find some, review their websites to determine if you would be a good fit. I would then call the divorce attorney to discuss scheduling a consultation and fees. Once you have a consultation with the divorce attorney, you should have a better idea of how you need to proceed and whether you want to hire that divorce attorney to handle your divorce. If you need divorce legal advice would like to speak to a divorce attorney in Lake Norman, please contact Adkins Law PLLC. Adkins Law is located in Huntersville and primarily serves Mecklenburg County and the Lake Norman area. In North Carolina, the most common way for a couple to get a divorce is to live separate and apart continuously for one year and a day. During this time period, the couple cannot reconcile and must live in different residences. Additionally, either the husband or the wife must have lived in North Carolina for at least six months. After the separation period has passed, either party may file for the divorce. Both parties don’t have to agree to it. Before the divorce is finalized, claims for alimony and property division must be made or they are barred. North Carolina is a no-fault jurisdiction for divorce. This means that neither party has to prove marital fault to file for divorce. Instead, all that is required is that one party live the statutory period in the state, that the parties live apart for more than a year, and that the appropriate paperwork is filed. Divorce is emotionally and financially difficult. Although you can and may file for divorce on your on, it is recommended that you at least consult with a divorce attorney. A divorce attorney may provide you with legal advice concerning divorce and any claims that need to be filed before the divorce is finalized. If you wish to speak to legal counsel regarding getting a divorce, please contact Adkins Law to schedule a consultation with a divorce attorney. Adkins Law is located in Huntersville and primarily serves Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and the Lake Norman area. |
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