Final Divorce Agreement 1 : Always reread the document

Trying to come up with a final divorce agreement is like trying to catch a trout with your bare hands.

Frustrating, seemingly impossible, and sometimes fishy.

There are so many parts to a final agreement, that we will probably never finish talking about the subject. But we can definitely start. Remember that I am not a professional of any kind, but this is from my personal experience.

A final Agreement (aka Stipulation) is the paperwork that the parties come up with together to be their governing paperwork. It discusses things like custody, what expenses the parents share, how the parties are splitting up the assets, and other important issues.

Today we are going to talk about the fishy part of divorce agreements. Or, hopefully, the lack thereof.

Whenever you are sending any paperwork back and forth, from party to party, ALWAYS READ THROUGH IT AGAIN. I have had a couple of friends who later went back to check on something in the agreement and realized that their ex had slipped something in without them knowing it. And now, because they signed the agreement, they have to live by it.

Always read through what you sign.

Documents can be edited and retyped. Words can be added and redacted.

Have a list of things that are important for you, that are your must haves and have a list of things that your ex wants but that you don't want. Compare the paperwork with each step to make sure that the things you want that are supposed to be in the paperwork are still there, and that your ex hasn't added anything that shouldn't be in there.

See, at least in my case, one of us came up with an initial agreement. Then we sent it  back and forth. When I would send it to him, he would send it back with what he would agree to. Then I would look at his changes and send him back what I would agree to. It's called Negotiating.

And, really, it was much harder than that. There were times that my ex refused to negotiate. If he didn't want it, he just dropped it all together.  Getting to the end of our agreement was like pulling teeth. And it was very expensive and time consuming.

Read through what you sign and compare the document to your lists. It may save you a lot of grief later.

I will write more about Final Divorce Agreements in upcoming posts.