While it doesn’t happen very often in celebrity divorces, reaching an immediate settlement with your spouse is sometimes in your best interest. If it worked for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, maybe it can work for you too!
If you are in the public eye, and don’t want the intimate details of your life disclosed in the media, an immediate and amicable settlement with your spouse may be in your best interest. The ability to settle quickly presupposes that both you and your spouse feel the same compelling need for privacy, that you both have access to the financial records evidencing the assets and liabilities created during the marriage, and that you both have excellent counsel similarly focused on helping you to resolve the issues presented by divorce on an expedited basis. Beyond that, you have to be willing to cooperate and compromise on issues like child custody, visitation and the division of property. In other words, the stars have to be aligned as they were for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
While a desire to maintain your privacy is an important reason to settle quickly, it is not the only reason. If your marriage was short, and you don’t have much to divide, you may be able to work out the details of your dissolution before either of you ever meet with an attorney. If you are in agreement on how to divide what you have, and how to handle custody and visitation, then your counsel should be able to focus on getting your agreement before the court, and not spend your money creating needless litigation.
Even if your marriage was long term and you have a lot of assets, you may want to work out your property division and custody issues with your spouse before seeing a lawyer so as to minimize the legal fees that you will both incur if these issues became confrontational and have to be resolved through litigation.
Indeed, any reason for settling early is a good enough reason, as long as the settlement is an informed one, and you are receiving your fair and equitable share of the fruits of the marriage. If not, then you may need to employ counsel to advocate on your behalf to ensure that your ultimate settlement is fair and just.
[Every case is different. Nothing in this post or on this site is, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. Please contact me to obtain legal advice regarding your particular situation. Past achievements are not a predictor of future results, and do not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome that you can expect. No attorney-client relationship can be or will be established until attorney and client have met, discussed the client’s specific needs and expectations and the attorney’s current fee structure, and attorney and client have both signed a written fee agreement.]