Divorce can happen at any age and there is always something to make it contentious. A Family Law Attorney Rochester MN practice can help people through their divorce regardless of their age, the length of the marriage and the emotional issues involved. For younger couples, it’s usually child custody and support disputes that take the longest to solve. As people live longer, they may have two or three spouses and children with all of them. Divorces in older people can often focus on the division of wealth, assets, and retirement savings. Divorce is one of the reasons that people of all ages find themselves deeply in debt and eventually declare bankruptcy.
It is important for a person to find an attorney that they are comfortable with and that can represent them. Sometimes couples opt for a mediation process. They work with a mediator to iron out their differences and then have a Family Law Attorney file the divorce papers. This process can help spouses and their children develop a framework to remain a family, even if the parents are no longer married. They can look at the family finances as a whole and determine how to share the wealth so that neither partner faces financial ruin. It is still important that each person have their own lawyer. After a rough draft of an agreement is finished, each spouse’s lawyer can review it.
A divorce involving an older couple may be more complicated, because there are prior legal agreements that involve former spouses and children. There may be adult children who expect to inherit the family home and suddenly their stepmother is claiming it in her settlement agreement. It’s not uncommon for them to get their own attorneys. Even if they have no legal right to the property, their father may feel pressured by verbal promises made years ago.
Parents can face a lonely old age, as they disrupt the delicate balance among several blended families that took decades to establish. Their lawyer will have to sort through legally binding agreements and non-binding promises. They will also have to protect their client’s ability to live out their life in comfort as they continue to age. Eventually, they will have to convince a judge of their client’s right to property and cash over the others who would also like to have it.
