I have clients who are in a hurry to finalize their divorce agreement, even though the date of their hearing is months away. I also have clients who are avoiding me rather than have to commit anything to paper yet. I have clients who want to know the details of the spouse’s financial picture before completing their own financial affidavit, and others who bring me everything I request promptly, clearly, and in a completely organized fashion.
You might want to guess that the people who are most compliant are doing so because they are the ones with the most to gain financially. It might seem obvious that my stragglers, or my suspicious clients, are the ones who are likely to get raked by the end of this.
Ironically, if anything, it is usually the opposite case. I have a man right now paying his wife about twice as much as he should be paying her while the divorce is pending. He does not want to be paying her anything, but when I ask him to sit down with me to sort out the financial picture he gets agitated and hangs up the phone. Then he sends her another check, because he does not know what else to do.
A client’s level of cooperation is more typically a reflection of who they are than what they want. People who have spent their lives balancing their check books, watching the interest rates on their credit cards, and checking their credit scores are people who want to know their financial picture. It might be that they are going to be worse off at the end of the divorce than they are now, but if they can be told, for example, “you will be living on $500 a week until you get a better job,” then they know how to start planning. It might not be what they want to hear; but at least they know what they are up against.
It is similar to the feeling of relief when the doctor diagnoses your mysterious pain. Once you find out that the sharp pain behind your eye is a sinus infection, you can stop worrying that it might be a brain tumor.
On the other hand, there are those who find a mysterious lump while taking a routine shower, and become too terrified to go to the doctor. “What if it is cancer?” they ask, and decide they do not want to know. They would rather live with a fear than risk learning the truth. They can themselves that the fear is just hypochondria. Once they have a diagnosis, though, that safety net disappears. Too often we hear stories of people who ignored a lump – hoping it would go away, hoping they were just over-reacting – to their own detriment.
The ostriches of the legal world are not much different than the ostriches of the medical world. My clients are afraid that once we all get a clear picture of their financial situation that things are going to get worse quickly. Maybe they think of a divorce decree as similar to a terminal diagnosis. Instead of fearing the sentence, “it is inoperable,” they fear the sentence, “all of your earnings, for the rest of your life.”
So, although an agreement might ultimately benefit the payor spouse, that is not who is always the most cooperative. And even if the ultimate agreement will set the payee spouse in a comfortable situation, that is not always the one in a hurry to settle.
Who is most likely to get it done quickly and cleanly? The person who wants to finish the divorce and start a new life.
WHAT WE LOVE: The diagnosis is usually much less severe than what your imagination creates.
Love Your Divorce 