Carrollwood Divorce Attorneys are constantly asked about whether there is a significant advantage to filing for divorce first. Generally, folks know a divorce is coming and are not surprised by the divorce being filed, but when they hear that their soon to be former spouse has consulted an attorney, they feel it’s necessary to determine whether they should go ahead and just file or wait to be served. In short, there is not a tremendous advantage to filing or not filing.
The only advantage is that you can prevent the other party from dissipating or hiding assets, if you file for divorce first. The easiest way to think about this is if you wait for the other party to file and they wait three months, they essentially have three months to again either relocate or hide some sort of assets. It also helps if the other party is taking on large and significant debt, by filing first, you can further argue to the court that the majority of those debts were undertaken after the period you filed for divorce. These steps obviously can protect you financially and assist our Carrollwood Divorce Attorneys later in your case by ensuring your assets are adequately protected.
It is worth noting though that if the other party does file for divorce first, you can make the same sort of allegations you would make in a divorce petition through what is called a counter petition. This essentially allows you to respond to and answer the allegations in the petition and assert your own allegations. Counter petitions are filed in nearly every divorce case.
If you have questions concerning your Tampa divorce, contact the Carrollwood Divorce Attorneys in Hackworth Law for a free case consultation. We’ve handled hundreds of family law and divorce matters throughout the Tampa Bay area and look forward to sitting down with you and identifying a specific case plan and strategy to protect your rights and interests. If you’d like to contact one of our Tampa divorce attorneys immediately, please use the “Contact Us Now” tab in the upper right hand corner of our website. We appreciate you taking the time to check out our Tampa divorce attorney blog and look forward to working with you in the future.