My W and I hired a L to do all the paperwork but she did not represent either one of us. When my EW contacted me and told me she wanted to move forward with D we arranged a time to meet and we discussed everything from the kids, to the house, child support and our finances. It cost us about $800 to get divorced.
That's pretty much how we did it as well. My ex was actually surprised I was good with 50-50 custody, for some reason she thought I was going to try for full custody but BD aside she was always a great mom even after she left. We already had separate bank accounts so the financial split wasn't hard to figure out.
Quote:
In the end I kept the house, we have 50/50 joint custody with the kids with no parent having any more or less rights than the other.
Not sure about other states but in TX you have to designate one parent as "primary" even in a 50-50 split. I think this is mainly for the purpose of determining where the kids go to school. I kept the house so we agreed to designate me as primary.
Quote:
I have a buddy that is a judge and he advised me that the more you can agree on the better. There is no need to mediate on things you already agree on and if you can keep the A's out of it your better off.
Completely agree. My ex and I worked everything out, then in the 11th hour she decided I owed her another 7k or something like that. I asked her to sit down to explain where the number came from (she sent a rambling email that made no sense at all) and she got VERY angry and said "we'll just let the lawyers fight it out." Honestly the thought of a prolonged court battle started my anxiety attacks all over again, and I decided 7k wasn't worth more lost sleep, lost work and possible health issues. I just agreed to it and moved on, and I'm glad I did. Best 7k I ever threw away, LOL!
