CURE
FOR THE DIVORCE BLUES
8 Things You Can Do to Make Any Divorce Better
by Ed Sherman, Family Law Attorney and divorce expert
Divorce is enough to give anyone the blues, but based on my experience with success in over 45,000 cases
I can give you the following eight tips that will definitely help make things go more smoothly and easily.
Not only that, if you follow my advice you are bound to save lots of time, trouble and money on your
divorce.
- Don’t rush into divorce while feeling desperate, angry, or emotionally pressured. You have
many important decisions to make and they should be made calmly and clearly.
- It’s OK to use an attorney, but don’t retain one to take over your case.
You should stay in control of your divorce and your life. Because lawyers are trained in an
adversarial method of practicing law, if you let them take control, conflict is bound to escalate,
making things worse.
- Take an active role in your divorce: educate yourself about the procedures,
become informed about the rules, and make your own decisions. The more involved you become, the better
the outcome.
- Keep it simple! If one spouse gets an attorney, the other one might too. Two attorneys start
off costing just double, but soon they are writing letters, filing motions and creating conflict, which
means escalating costs. Do as much as you can yourself and save on legal fees so you can send your own
child to college—not some lawyer’s.
- Remember that fighting will not prevent a divorce, it will only make it more unpleasant and
much more expensive. Use my proven techniques to calm yourself and settle things down so you can more
easily and painlessly reach the agreements that you ultimately are going to make anyway.
- Realize that most divorce problems are not legal problems, but rather are emotional and
personal problems. Neither the law nor attorneys have solutions for these types of problems.
Trying to use legal tools on personal problems only makes things worse—not better.
- Understand that fighting parents frighten children—ask yourself if expressing your anger
justifies the hurt to your child. Children learn from what you do, not what you say. By working to settle
your differences and come to agreement, you teach your children that problems can be solved.
- Consider that the real divorce is free. It’s about ending one life and beginning another, then
making it work—spiritually, emotionally and practically. Successfully meeting the emotional, physical
and practical challenges is hard work, but it will lead to a better divorce and be well worth it.
I give detailed advice on how to follow these steps in
Make Any Divorce Better.
Copyright 2007 Ed Sherman
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Ed Sherman is a family law attorney, divorce expert, and founder of Nolo Press. He started the self-help
law movement in 1971 when he published the first edition of
How to Do Your Own Divorce, and
founded the paralegal industry in 1973. With more than a million books sold, Ed has saved the public
billions of dollars in legal fees while making divorce go more smoothly and easily for millions of readers. You can order his books from
www.nolodivorce.com or by calling (800) 464-5502.