My spouse just asked for a divorce. What should I do first in Florida?
You should go to your attorney first because your attorney is going to give you the directions of the things that you’re going to need to begin to gather. You’re going to want to gather your financial documents. You’re going to want to begin to gather any calendars, records, or notes that you might have that relate to your children or your business. Those are things that you’re going to want to begin to gather.
Now, your financial assets at that point, it’s important to have your attorney file for that divorce quickly. It’s not that it’s a race to the courthouse, whoever gets there first has an advantage, but in our community, the court will issue what’s called a standing order. Within that standing order is going to be something that’s going to prevent your spouse from dissipating your assets or from incurring new debts into the marriage.
That will protect you later on, so that nobody’s walking away with your cache of CDs, and nobody is going to go ahead and put an extra loan onto your home or get a new credit card and put $20,000 worth of debt on there that you may later end up being partially responsible for. Talk to your attorney right away, and get your paperwork filed immediately, so that the standing order can be issued to protect you.
