Hi, I’m Susan the paralegal and I’m here to talk to you today about the paperwork that you need to gather for either a divorce or a custody case.
Every case is unique, so I’m only going over some of the basic documents that you absolutely should collect and bring. A good law firm and a good paralegal will be able to tell you exactly what you need to gather but below you’ll find some tips to get started. In addition to these tips, you lawyer will likely provide you with a comprehensive checklist of things required from you as well.
Some of the most common things you’ll want to show up with include bank statements, credit card bills, car payment vouchers or coupon books titled to your car or titled to your house, any information you have on investment accounts, retirement accounts etc. Just remember, if you can’t find all these items or they are hidden from you, a law firm and your lawyer and the team can probably get that information for you but it’s going to be much more costly to you for us to actually find that information and gather them for you to actually organize it yourself. Since most lawyers charge by the hour, you can save yourself some money by collecting those documents ahead of time.
The most important documents you can come armed with are court documents; if you’re in an ongoing divorce case or on ongoing custody case you need to gather every court document that’s in your possession. Again we can gather those for you but we are going to have to send someone to the courthouse and it can add to the total cost of preparing your case. If you have an ongoing custody case, for example, your marital settlement agreement and the parenting plan (if you have children) will be very, very important to bring to the lawyer and gather because that’s going to give your lawyer the road map of what is and what has been ruled in your case. Court documents such as these can save a lot of time in the preparation stage so bring them with you if at all possible.
Get organized and try to do some of your own legwork to save yourself to save time and money. For compassionate, knowledgeable legal representation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, call our office today.