Why Does an Attorney Need Job Paycheck Information For Divorce?
The divorce process is a stressful, disorienting time. It’s full of Latin, acronyms, and other financial lingo that can make it feel overwhelming. A good divorce attorney knows how to help you navigate these challenges and get to the other side of them.
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It’s a great idea to keep your job and pay stubs organized on a regular basis so that your attorney can review them and ensure that you are earning the income that is required for you to support yourself. This is particularly important in cases where your spouse’s attorney is trying to use a higher income than you are legitimately earning when calculating child support or alimony.
Your pay stubs can provide information about the amount of overtime you are getting, and other mandatory deductions that you may be subject to in addition to taxes. This can be very helpful when your attorney is preparing your Affidavit of Financial Information for your case.
In many states, every person going through a divorce is required to file a financial statement. The exact format can vary from state to state, but it always includes a list of your monthly income, budget, and assets. This is a critical piece of evidence that can be used by your attorney to prove your true income, and if your case goes to trial, it will be reviewed by the judge and referred to in determining issues like property distribution and spousal support.
It’s also important to supply your paychecks and other income documents on a regular basis as your case progresses so that your attorney can track down any changes in your expenses that are related to the changes in your income. It’s also possible that your employer has changed their pay scale or you are no longer working there, in which case you should notify your attorney so that he can update the information on your Affidavit of Income and Support to reflect this change.
This is also a good opportunity to check into any new spending habits that you and your spouse are developing during the course of your divorce, as well as any money that you are spending on other things that don’t seem to be necessary for your family. It’s especially useful to look into your spouse’s expense account if he or she has taken customers to expensive restaurants, billed for the costs of sports tickets or other activities that are not considered essential for your family.
If your spouse is using any of his or her income for anything other than necessities, that is a serious violation of a court order. In most states, this can be punished by a judge in the form of a fine or even jail time.
You and your spouse may have a joint bank account that you used to deposit your work checks during your marriage. This is another area that a judge could look into in your divorce if you’ve gotten suspicious that your spouse is not following the court orders on how to spend your joint bank accounts.