When you are involved in a divorce proceeding, you’ll go through a process called discovery. Discovery happens in most legal cases. It’s a form of evidence-gathering, so that both parties are working with the same information. In a divorce proceeding, discovery is used to get a clear picture of a couple’s financial situation, including details of the marriage, children, prior agreements and other relevant details.
What’s involved in the discovery process?
Many divorces require the help of lawyers—but even before you’ve retained an attorney, you can start gathering your required information. For example, your lawyer will need your family’s full names, addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers, as well as dates when you started cohabitating or got married. They’ll also need to know where the wedding occurred, and if you had any prior marriages. If you had any prenuptial agreements, you’ll also need to provide a copy of that.
The divorce discovery process typically centers around finances, but there may be other elements involved. Generally, you and your spouse will need to disclose financial data like tax returns, pay stubs, assets, retirement accounts, debts, credit card statements, mortgages and more. This data acts as the starting point for the discovery process. Your lawyer will review your financial and marital information, then request information from your spouse to fill in the blanks.
Typically, you should expect to work with your financial professionals and lawyer to put a dollar value on everything you own, both separately and jointly. This helps ensure property is divided equitably or according to your agreement—and that neither spouse is hiding assets from the other.
Divorce and the discovery process are significantly easier when you have a great attorney by your side. For help with your divorce and discovery, call the experienced divorce lawyers at Appelhof, Pfeifer & Hart, P.A. in St. Paul, MN.
