There are a couple of things that you are going to need to do to initiate the divorce process. First, there are legal things that you do to start the divorce process. You will need to file a petition for dissolution of marriage. What’s the first thing you do? You file a petition for dissolution of marriage and you have the other party either served or he or she signs a waiver of service. That would be the first thing you would do.
The other part of the answer to this question is what do you do? How do you begin to think about this? How do you look at what your divorce and take away the mystery of it first?
That’s one of the practices that I do here at the firm. I call it divorce coaching because I’m working with people that aren’t ready to get a divorce. They’re contemplating a divorce. They don’t know what that means really for them in their lives. They come to me and we spend an hour or two, however long it takes for them to feel satisfied, to go over what their situation is, what their finances are, what the situation with their children is, and look at what it would be like if they did get a divorce. What would happen with assets and debts? What would happen with co-parenting? What potential breakdowns would there be? Would there be safety issues? Would there be financial safety issues? We look at what planning needs to be done if they do choose to move forward with a divorce. We take away what I call the Black Box, which is, the wonder of what it’s going to be like. I also go over the entire process of what the divorce will look like and then, if it veers one way, what’s the best case scenario and then what’s the worst case scenario.
When people finish a divorce coaching session they walk out enlightened, clear about what the possibilities are. I think it helps them tremendously to make wise choices about how to proceed, especially how to begin the divorce process. It’s so important to start it the right way, depending on who’s on the other side, their psychology, your psychology, the facts and circumstances and financial information? There’s really a good way to start a divorce and really a bad way to start a divorce. We look at the circumstances and we come up with those plans for people. I think that’s a lot more important than what the first legal document is. For more information about filing for divorce, how divorce works, or any other family law matters in Colorado, call us at (303) 329-3802.
