Scenario 1: You and your spouse are physically separated, heading towards a divorce. You are living in the family home. Your spouse is living elsewhere. One afternoon you return home from work to find that your spouse has cleaned out the family home–his stuff, joint stuff and your stuff (including your expensive family heirloom jewelry)!
What can you do?
1. Get to a divorce attorney who understands the interplay between divorce, criminal law, protective orders, replevin (the return of property) and injunctions.
2. Get a great education as to your options, the probabilities of success for each option, and the quickest and most aggressive way to “take the bull by the horns.”
3. Give your spouse a very narrow window of opportunity to come clean–amnesty–before you “do what you have to do.”
4. Never make a threat.
5. Never send “nasty” emails that could come back to bite you. One suggested email, depending on the circumstances, would be as follows: “Hey, I just got home and it looks like we have been robbed. I am getting ready to call 911 and the insurance company to file a police report, but I thought I would send you a quick email to see if you knew or had heard anything before I do so.”
The bottom line: an experienced family law attorney should be able to listen to almost every sitatuation and instantly provide you with at least three–or more–real options.
At Milstein Siegel, our aggressive immersion practice focuses first on listen, then on educating, our clients, so that we can jointly brainstorm appropriate options to help you achieve your goals!
