When it comes to divorce, there’s almost always at least one party who thinks they got the ugly end of the judgment.

This leads some people to ask for a do-over.

A reader named Phil says he has a friend who went through the process of appealing a divorce judgment, and he is interested in what the process entails.

The first thing someone seeking an appeal will have to do is find a lawyer experienced in the State Court of Appeals when it comes to divorce – no easy task.

Even some of the best known and experienced family law lawyers don’t do appeals but instead refer clients to a handful of West Michigan attorneys, including George Perrett who practices in the Kalamazoo suburb of Parchment.

Read more : MLive

Cal Worthington – the greatest car salesman of all time — believes his 42-year-old wife Anna is gunning for his fortune … so he BANISHED her from his mansion and REPO’D her Bentley.

The 91-year-old LEGEND has filed new docs in his divorce … claiming the woman he married in April turned out to be a lemon … but he signed a pre-nup so she wouldn’t get jack squat.

Cal claims he’s only obligated to fork over $4k per month … for 6 months after the divorce … and THAT’S IT. Then she’s on her own.

Anna thinks she deserves more … MUCH MORE … including Cal’s $3.25 MILLIONBeverly Hills mansion.

Read the full story : TMZ

If you are contemplating divorce in 2012, two important tips can help you make a smooth transition.

Read more: Digital Journal

CNN has recently reported on dealing with divorce during the holidays. Check out some of their tips.

(CNN) – David Murphy hasn’t started shopping for his two boys yet, and he knows he had better get started. The divorced father of two boys, ages 11 and 14, has custody for a full week around Christmas Day this year and needs to get a tree and start buying presents.

Every other year, Murphy (who didn’t want his real name used to protect his children’s privacy) doesn’t have Christmas custody. So, he tries to do something completely different. Divorced for four years, he has traveled with his mother to visit England, where she was born. He has joined his father and stepmother on a trip to Carmel, California.

He hasn’t crashed his ex-wife’s Christmas Day plans, even though she lives only three miles away from his home in suburban Virginia.

“We try not to mess with the schedule when we don’t have to because it’s easier on both parties,” said Murphy. “As each party has moved on, it happened to work that way. We try not to interfere with each other.”

Read More:  CNN

CreditCards.com have recently highlighted something very important in Divorce cases.

Dear To Her Credit,

My husband and I lived in California, which is a community property state, for 15 years. He had a lot more debt than I did, and most of it was in his name only.

Recently, we moved to Oregon, which is not a community property state. We’re now getting a divorce, and I’m trying to get all his debts assigned to him. I’ve heard, however, that by community property laws, I could still be liable for his debts even after the divorce and even if my name is not on the accounts. Is that true even if we get a divorce in a noncommunity property state?  

- Trudy

Dear Trudy,

You’re right to be worried about post-divorce debt. Many ex-spouses think everything is taken care of when a divorce decree assigns debt to one spouse. Then the other ex gets a rude surprise when the creditors come calling!

Read more: Fox Business

Text messages are already an integral part of our society so it makes sense that they become important in divorce proceedings. According to a recent study from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, text messaging was one of the top three most common forms of electronic evidence.

If you suspect your spouse is cheating, what better way to find out than through his inbox? To do so, you can either read directly off the cell phone while your spouse is distracted or by removing them from the phone.

However, before you snoop, keep in mind, going through someone else’s cell phone is illegal in some states and the information you find may be made inadmissible in court so make sure to act on reasonable suspicion.

But cell phone companies don’t store messages anymore than a guilty spouse would.

Mark Siegel, the executive director of media and industry analyst relations for AT&T Wireless said that he knows of no way to save a text message, other than just not deleting it from the phone. He said AT&T stores text messages for 48 hours to ensure they are delivered, and then deletes them.

Verizon Wireless spokesperson, Deborah Lewis, says her company does not keep text messages on their servers for any length of time but if there are retrievable messages, a subpoena is required to obtain copies.

John Simek, vice president of Sensei Enterprises Inc., a Virginia computer forensics company, says the best chance at getting any text information if through searching the handset. If the messages are deleted, professionals may be called in.

If someone deletes their text messages, a company such as his own can try to retrieve the messages using several programs, such as Sim Card Seizure, Paraben Device Seizure, or BitPim. His company has seen an increase in requests to text messages

When the company gains access to the text messages, it can save them for the client, and then testify in court for the messages’ information, mollifying the worry over inadmissibility.

For more information, check out: divorce 360

New Yorkers are marrying at a later age, and with later marriages, those who choose divorce are splitting up at a later age. A late-life divorce certainly involves different considerations. For example, you may not have to deal with issues of child custody or visitation as your children may now be legal adults no longer living with you. Though children might not be involved, it doesn’t necessarily mean that late-life divorce is easy.

According to a recent U.S. Census report, less first-time married couples are lasting until their 25^th (or later) anniversaries. Many couples choose divorce later on because they realize they want to make the most out of their life, and know that their relationship is no longer satisfying for them.

Getting divorced, however, brings new considerations. A couple’s investments and assets have lasted longer, and must be divided. A couple will have more homes or businesses that need to be fairly divided. New York courts, being in a state of equitable distribution of assets, will likely split these assets even if one spouse invested more of their own money. New York spouses also have the right to claim a share of pensions, 401(k) accounts and individual retirement accounts even if they are under the name of one spouse.

Another consideration of a late-life divorce is the fact that you are either already retired or close to retiring. You likely do not have the same regular income as you did in the past, so your divorce settlement is key to protecting your future finances.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Though a divorce is certainly not a planned or ideal event, there are better times than others to get a divorce. Many couples choose divorce based on their current financial situation or the environment around them.

So what should you look out for? New York actually has a lower divorce rates than other states, which experts claim can be partially attributed to the state’s poor economy. With higher taxes and fewer jobs, individual spouses feel less confident on their ability to live and thrive on their own. In addition to paying for the divorce itself, post-divorce you may have to purchase or rent a new house, car, furniture, etc., all of which can be costly.

Connected to a bad economy, an unstable real estate market, can also make getting a divorce more difficult. If you or your spouse is selling your former home, you are likely not going to sell it for your ideal price. A good idea would be to have one spouse stay in the house so you do not have to deal with the market.

Having a bad credit history is not good when you are getting a divorce. Post-divorce, you may find yourself looking for a new place to live, opening a new credit card, or interviewing for a new job. Al of these may be affected if you have a bad credit report. It also can hurt you when settling child custody and financial support arrangements.

Many couples also wait until their children are older to divorce. If you and your spouse choose to divorce with a child under 18, you are going to have to settle custody and financial support. A divorce will affect your ability to pay to support the child and even larger expenses, such as college, may be affected.

If you choose to split up under any of these conditions, pay attention to how those circumstances will affect your life during and after divorce.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

We don’t need a professional psychologist to confirm the chaotic reign of emotions during divorce.

As reported by Jennifer Wallis, the vice president of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central Oklahoma, credit becomes a tool in the war against peaceful separation.

One of her clients‘ ex-husband has destroyed her credit during the finalization of their divorce buy failing to uphold his agreement to pay the credit card companies.

He couldn’t pick a better time too, considering she now needs to establish her own financial identity. Yet, due to his sabotage, bad credit will burden the process of obtaining the confidence of mortgage companies, auto loans, and insurance companies.

To ensure your post-divorce credit status, Bankrate lists five ways.

Create a Budget

Ann Estes, president of the Atlantic and Heartland regions for ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions, says “You’re moving from a dual-income household to a single-income budget.” The only way to recover from the change is to make difficult financial decisions.

On top of the new budget should be the calculation of an affordable new house with taxes, insurance, and utility bills accounted for.

Know Your Debt and Credit Lines

Pull up a credit report to see the accounts you and your spouse opened, nothing which    are individual, joint, or authorized.

An individual account means sole responsibility for the debt. A joint account means your spouse shares responsibility in the payment. An authorized account means the account is under one individual’s name who allows the other to use card without responsibility for the balance.

Remove Authorized Users 

There’s nothing worse than being required to pay off your ex-spouse’s shopping spree bill at the Home Depot. To avoid this fate, review your credit report for the authorized user accounts, and then call the credit card issuer to ask for the name to be removed.

It’s also important to remove yourself as an authorized user because it can factor into your credit score.

Separate Joint Accounts

“Many people don’t understand that a divorce decree doesn’t change the contract you have with your lender,” says Rod Griffin, director of public education at Experian. “The only way to remove yourself (from a joint account) is going through the lender.”

He recommends paying off the accounts and closing them before the divorce but an alternative is to transfer them into individual ones.

To do so, transfer the balance of one credit card to another that is in a sole person’s name and close the joint account. Alternately, you can also refinance a mortgage under one name.

If splitting the accounts becomes too difficult, divide the responsibilities of the joint debt according to what works best for your situation. For instance, the person who lives in the house pays the mortgage and the person who gets the car pays the auto loan.

Keep Watch Over Joint Accounts

Ask your lender to send you a copy of the account’s statement each money, even if your spouse has been responsible.

You could also pull a free credit report from a different agency every four months to confirm all accounts are being paid on time. Through AnnualCreditReport.com, federal law allows you to request a free one every 12 months.

If your spouse isn’t making the payments, find a divorce attorney. The court will likely force your spouse to pay the legal fees and reimburse any pocket expenses if the creditor tails you.

For more information, check out: Fox Business

It has become a recent trend with famous divorcees. Despite being granted large windfall many women are up to their eyes in debt after a few years. From Patricia Kluge (granted a reported total of $1 billion) to Diandra Douglas (former wife of Eddie Murphy) time and time again women have succumbed to the lavish lifestyle following separation from their partners.

What happened? How can you squander that much money? What were they thinking? The common perception is that that many ex-spouses fall into the trap of thinking that their lifestyle will not permanently change–should not change–after a divorce.

Read the full article: The Huffington Post