There is a fine line between love and hate.
Unfortunately, the adage has never been more applicable than after a divorce. The dissolution of a marriage can result in the emergence of charged emotions and egotistical conduct, prompting spouses to act out, counterattack, and play dirty.
Divorce can have an impact on your finances, family dynamics, and mental and emotional health. And, while you may not want to believe your partner is capable of pulling dirty tricks, you must remain cautious to protect yourself and your family.
To avoid wasting too much time during divorce, you must watch out for these sneaky tactics that your ex-partner can use to sabotage or waste time during your divorce. Keeping your eyes out helps you and your family lawyers to be strategic in how you approach the case.
Some of the sneaky tactics that you should watch out for include:
Hiding or lying about their income and assets
Wealth and assets acquired throughout the marriage are typically divided equally upon divorce, especially in no-fault divorce states. This leads to various dubious tactics designed to conceal assets and money.
Common tactics include:
- Transferring money or assets into a family member’s name
- Hiding precious belongings in secret locations (such as safety deposit boxes).
- Inaccurately reporting income and holdings
- Making significant purchases under someone else’s name
- Claiming fictitious expenses or debts
It might be difficult to identify whether income or assets are being kept from you during separation. A divorce attorney can assist you by researching your ex’s financial condition and looking for unusual spending activities.
Requesting more visitation
When children are involved in a divorce, timesharing, and custody disputes are frequently overshadowed by child support obligations. In some circumstances, your ex-partner might desire more time with their children to reduce the child support payments they must make.
As a result, children are often handed off to family members during your days. As you can tell, this is wrong
Make sure your family law attorney is aware of your worries so that they can pursue all possible options in the best interests of your children.
Sabotaging communication and negotiations
Refusing to negotiate or communicate can significantly delay divorce proceedings and produce a mountain of frustration. This approach aims to wear you down like those who delay or rush along the process.
Drawing out the process is costly, and your attorney can use legal means to prove your ex’s unwillingness to communicate and move proceedings along in your favor. When the other person sees what they stand to lose by refusing to speak, they typically begin to comply.
Making false allegations
When one spouse does not receive the custody decision they desire, or when they fear that custody proceedings will not go their way, a damaging and (unfortunately) prevalent technique is to fabricate false claims. The purpose is to ruin your character in front of the court to acquire full custody or restrict your visitation rights.
Common examples of allegations that may result in loss of custody or visitation are:
- Child neglect or abuse.
- Domestic violence.
- Criminal behavior.
- Alcoholism or drug addiction
- Failure to obey court rulings regarding custody arrangements
When false claims are made against you, you must communicate openly and honestly with your attorney so that they can properly advise and represent you.
Intentionally delaying the process.
Stall and delay divorce strategies prolong the process as much as possible. Your ex hopes they will either buy more time to win or avoid the legal fees and accept whatever they offer.
Stalling methods include taking their time signing the documentation, denying any offers of discussion, and returning everything to the court.
If you’re dealing with delay tactics and can’t seem to go forward, you should consult with a divorce lawyer.
Pushing for a quick settlement
Another sly divorce approach is to try to move things along quickly. This approach is common when your ex-partner is aggressive and wants to keep something out of the proceedings, such as concealed income or assets.
They may also seek to obtain the best arrangement possible by inventing a fictitious time limit or hurrying to induce uncertainty.
Always have a divorce attorney review any documentation before you sign it to ensure that you are treated fairly and get what is rightfully yours.
Preventing you from seeing the kids
One of the most painful and devastating tricks in divorce cases is to either turn the children against you or gradually restrict the amount of time you spend with their kids. The purpose of this technique is twofold:
- To demonstrate to the court that they invest more time in their children than with you, making them the greatest candidate for primary custody.
- Manipulate older children into opting to be put largely with them rather than you.
Thankfully, your divorce lawyer can represent you if your children are being kept from you. They may even be able to turn the tables and cast a negative light on the offending spouse in front of the court, which increases your chances of not only seeing the children more often but also having custody of them.
Parting shot
These are some dirty divorce tricks you should keep an eye on and be ready to deal with them with your divorce lawyers Fairfax VA.
You should note that as much as you should watch for these tricks closely, you should also be ultra-cautious and avoid committing them as they can elicit retaliation from the opposing party or court sanctions, leading to an all-out court battle that may be difficult to win.
Furthermore, some actions may have legal consequences or negatively affect you in court proceedings. You don’t want this, do you?
To be on the safe side, you should play clean on your side. This means you should always be open to communicating with your partner.
If you have custody of the children, let your ex-partner see the children and spend as much time with them as possible to avoid retaliation, which is unhealthy for everyone involved.
