How to get your fair share in a divorce.

• Author: Zipp, Alan S.
• Position: Includes related article - Personal Financial Planning

Divorce is never an easy subject, but aside from the emotional trauma and the child custody issues, divorce law boils down to two main issues: support and property. Divorcing couples usually handle these issues in one of two ways. In a mediated settlement, both parties volunteer information, because they recognize that negotiating a fair and reasonable business settlement will preserve the marital estate by minimizing litigation costs and attorneys' fees. Plus, both parties are more likely to comply with a negotiated settlement. Other people prefer to litigate and allow a court to decide how to distribute the marital property.

In the latter situation, emotions can run high, but it's important to preserve your legal advantages as much as possible. Don't volunteer any information, and wait for the interrogatories, production-of-documents request and deposition before giving up anything. Often, the wording of a specific interrogatory or request for production of documents is vague to allow you to produce virtually anything and still comply with the request. For example, your spouse's attorney could ask you to produce all your income-tax returns for the last five years, perhaps with the intention of looking at your itemized medical deductions. If the attorney doesn't specifically ask for the supporting income-tax schedules in addition to the actual return, you don't have to produce them -- only the return itself. This won't give the attorney the information for which he or she is looking, but you would have complied fully with the stated request. Read the question very carefully with your attorney and give only what the documents literally ask for.

Also, ask your attorney to explain your state's laws on marital property. In many states, marital property, doesn't include property acquired by gift or inheritance, nor does it include property acquired before the marriage or after the separation. Generally, anything acquired during the marriage is considered marital property and is subject to equitable distribution. The laws don't favor one spouse's possession of marital property over the other's. Each spouse has the right to preserve and protect all marital property. For example, just because you're the spouse who's leaving home doesn't mean that you can't take some of your furniture with you to protect it. This notion also applies to marital business records, including bank statements, brokerage account reports, tax records and the like. If you are...