How You Can Use Bankruptcy as a Way to Make Your Divorce a Lot Easier to Deal With

Divorce brings about a drastic monetary change of mammoth proportions. You’re basically splitting income, property, and just about anything else associated with the lives led by two people who had been married for a length of time. Figuring out how to deal with everything from property distribution to asset division to child support to alimony to even the smallest thing, like who gets to take care of the dog, can make the process that much more painful than it already is. There is a way to simplify everything, though:

File for bankruptcy. Believe it or not, it does make things easier to handle when you do. What you have to understand is that these filings – whether it’s a divorce petition or an issue with the bankruptcy court – will cost some kind of fee, whether they are attorney fees or court expenses. If you don’t play this right, you could be shelling out a lot of money for something designed to get you out of debt or at least keep your head above water while you adjust to dividing a life spent together into two separate lives.

Bankruptcy & Divorce

Filing for bankruptcy jointly as well as individually basically encompasses the same exact fee. This means that even if you’re not too cordial with your soon-to-be ex-spouse, you can file for bankruptcy with him or her and actually save money on the divorce petition in court fees. How? You automatically take care of all the issues regarding your property distribution before it gets to the point where you may need a forensic account to resolve the issue or a mediator to go over every piece of property you have. In a way, filing for bankruptcy takes care of the money issue, allowing you to handle the more sensitive agendas associated with divorce.

Moreover, if you choose to hire a bankruptcy attorney, know that the attorney fees in that case actually might be a lot lower if you file jointly. However, you need to watch one aspect carefully: your prospective bankruptcy attorney might not want a conflict of interest if representing both you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse. Overall, though, if you play your financial cards right, you can make the divorce petition and finalization that much easier.