How to Avoid an Expensive Divorce

By George J. Nashak Jr.

The financial burden of obtaining a divorce can be enormous. Here you will find proven strategies for minimizing expensive legal fees while getting you the results you deserve. Is divorce my only option? Is it my best option? How do I find a competent and honest matrimonial lawyer? Can I represent myself? What exactly is the process to obtain a divorce? How is child support and alimony determined? Is mediation the way to go? What are my options concerning child custody? How can I reduce the amount my spouse and I pay our attorneys?

If you are contemplating a divorce, How to Avoid an Expensive Divorce will answer all of your questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543911527

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Why Read This Book?

If you are contemplating a divorce you must have many questions:

•Is divorce my only option? Is divorce my best option?

•What are the positive and negative effects of obtaining a divorce?

•Can I save my marriage?

•If I decide to obtain a divorce how can I reach an amicable and fair settlement and avoid the high monetary and emotional costs of litigation?

•Can I represent myself?

•How can I find a competent and honest matrimonial lawyer?

•Do I need to pay a consultation fee?

•What is the process to obtain a divorce?

•What are my options concerning custody and shared parenting time (visitation)?

•What about child support and maintenance (alimony)?

•What about health insurance?

•How are assets and debts distributed?

•Will I pay or receive counsel fees?

•Is mediation the way to go?

•What should a settlement agreement include?

•How does a divorce impact my social security benefits?

•How will a divorce impact my relationship with Uncle Sam?

If these are some of your questions this book is worth reading. This book will also answer the question: Who is this guy to give me advice?

CHAPTER 1

How Did I Come To Concentrate

My Practice In Family Law?

While in Fordham Law School I clerked for an Admiralty firm, Vincent & Grist. When I graduated, they offered and I accepted employment with their firm, which represented insurance companies. One of the reasons I left the firm after two years was a trial at which I sat second seat (assistant to the trial attorney). The case involved a barge loaded with bricks that capsized in the East River in New York City. When the barge righted itself, there were some bricks left on the barge. Our client, the insurance company, refused to pay on the grounds that their policy only covered total losses. The case was going fairly well until we put our underwriter on the stand. The direct and cross examinations went well until he was about to leave the stand and the judge asked him this question: If this was a barge load of sand and gravel and one grain of sand was left on the barge, would this be a partial or total loss? Our star witness said, partial and we lost. It was after this case that I decided I did not want to spend my career representing insurance companies.

When I left Vincent & Grist, I opened my own practice in Glendale, Queens County, New York. My Dad was a real estate and insurance broker and he provided me with a rent-free office and my sister Nancy was my secretary. One of the first cases I tried involved a builder who built a one-family home in Nassau County, New York. The house burned down before he was able to sell it. The insurance company refused to pay him. I was happy to have the opportunity to right this wrong. I took this case on a contingency fee arrangement; I was to be paid only if I won. I tried the case in the Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York. The judge gave the jury ten questions to answer. The first question was, Did the Plaintiff start the fire? The second question was, Did the Plaintiff hire someone to start the fire? The first nine questions went in my client’s favor. The tenth question was, Did the Plaintiff increase the hazard of the loss by having all of those paint cans in the garage? The jury answered that question in the affirmative and we lost. The judge called me up to the bench and told me that he thought I did a good job but the jury believed my client started the fire. They hesitated to call him an arsonist, but did not want to give him any money.

Over the next 30 years or so, I would think about this case and I was convinced that if I had been more experienced, I would have won. Years later, the builder died and his children hired our firm to handle his estate. When I shared with them my concern that I should have won that case for their dad, one of the children said, Don’t feel bad, Mr. Nashak. My father started the fire.

Initially, when I went out on my own, I was a general practitioner. I did real estate, wills, estates and some matrimonial. I joined the Queens County Bar Association and the Blackstone Club of Ridgewood. Henry Eisenberg, Esq., was a member of the Blackstone Club and concentrated his practice in family law. Most of the members of the Blackstone Club did not do matrimonial cases and referred their clients and friends to Henry. When Henry died suddenly, I decided to concentrate my practice in the matrimonial field and fill the void created by Henry’s death.

CHAPTER 2

Why Did I Write This Book And For Whom?

I practiced law for more than 50 years and family law exclusively for the last 30 years. I am now retired. Over these many years, I became aware that many divorces occurred at certain life crossroads. I also learned the many reasons why folks elect to be divorced and why some stay married.