The Friendly Divorce Guidebook for Connecticut: Planning, Negotiating and Filing Your Divorce is helpful for people going through divorce and the professionals who work to help them through the process. The book includes definitions, cautions, web site resources and links, court forms with instructions, samples tax forms.
List of chapters and summary of contents
1. The Initial Decisions
a. Options for the marriage in difficulty
b. Marriage counseling
c. Physical spearation
d. Divorce
e. Legal separtion
f. Annulment
g. Your other divorce
2. Divorce and the Legal System
a. How do you want to conduct your divorce
b. Non-legal approaches, services and consultants
c. Overview of court aspects of divorce
d. Word about the law
e. Privacy
3. How to Negotiate with Your soon-to-be Ex
a. Committing to amicable negotiations
b. Goals
c. Form Conflict to Cooperation
d. Turbulence
e. Feelings, roles and styles of negotiating
f. Speaking up for yourself
g. Talking in code
4. Taking Care of Yourself
a. Keeping yourself together so that you can work together
b. The emotional divorce sequence
c. Staying sane under insane conditions
d. Being a good parent is part of taking care of yourself
e. How to handle potential violence and other stressful encounters
5. Moving From One Household to Two
a. Toward a peaceful separation
b. Who uses what and who pays for it
c. Children
d. Budget crunch
e. Temporary support between spouses: alimony and tax considerations
6. Getting Divorced: Procedures and Paperwork
a. Who may file in Connecticut?
b. Where to file?
c. What forms do you need?
d. Jurisdiction
e. Notifying your spouse/service of process
f. Finishing your divorce
g. At the hearing
h. What to do if the judge does not approve your agreement
i. What if you can’t settle your case?
j. Instructions to complete court forms
7. Gathering Information and Preparing Financial Affidavits
a. Checklist of things to consider
b. Information about income
c. Budgeting expenses
d. Assets
e. Financial affidavit
8. Children
a. Who is a child
b. How to be a good parent through the divorce process
c. Who will make the major decisions regarding the children
d. Where will the children live
e. Developing your parenting schedule
f. How to tell the children
g. Anticipating changes
9. Child Support
a. The Connecticut Child Support Guidelines with forms and instructions
b. Deviations: what if the recommended amount is too high or too low for you?
c. Dealing with children’s expenses – the “budgeting” approach to deviation
d. Organizing parents’ income and children’s expenses
e. Life insurance and other security for child support
10. Property and Debts
a. Valuing and dividing property and debts
b. Kinds of property
c. Dealing with debt
d. Finalizing the division
11. Alimony
a. Kinds of alimony
b. IRS alimony rules
c. Organizing your income and expenses
d. Putting the alimony plan together
e. Termination of alimony
f. Cohabitation
g. To maintain your alimony agreement
12. Taxes
a. Tax effects of Divorce
b. Filing Status
c. Exemptions
d. Deductions
e. Credits
f. Estimating Your Taxes
g. Alimony recapture and child-related contingency rules
13. Finishing Up
a. Transfer of Title
b. Changing your name
c. Changing your address
d. Scheduling later events
e. Making things happen: enforcement