How to Organize Your Divorce Related Documents

HOW TO ORGANIZE DIVORCE RELATED DOCUMENTS

We recommend that you maintain a 3-ring notebook containing four sections in order to organize all of the documentation, which we will be forwarding to you during the course of these proceedings.  The first section, Pleadings, will contain motions and complaints.  The second section, Financial, should include financial statements which we will be preparing before our first court appearance.  Judgments/Orders, the third section, will include any Orders entered by the court and any Agreements or Stipulations.  Finally, the fourth section, Correspondence, will include all letters we send to you, as well as copies of all other letters that we forward to you.  You should keep the most recent documents at the front of each section.  This notebook will assist you in keeping all documents in an organized fashion.

You should request that your attorney copy you on all correspondences, financial documents and pleadings sent or received on your behalf so that you can better understand the litigation. Upon receipt, you should file these documents into your notebook.  This will reduce your legal fees, as you will have fewer questions for your lawyer.  When you do need to call your attorney, it is important to make a list ahead of time of the questions you have, so that the contact will be more meaningful and fruitful, again the net result will be that you will have a better understanding of what is going on, and will also be able to keep your legal fees under control.

If you change attorneys, you can bring your notebook with you so that the prospective attorney can review what you have to assess the reasonableness of the switch, and better predict the cost of the litigation if you plan to make the change.  Organization, is clearly the key to a more successful outcome with more reasonable attorneys fees incurred to achieve that outcome.