What to Have Available for Your Consultation

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Identification & basics

• Photo ID, and your spouse's or co-parent's full legal name and current address (if known)
• Key dates: marriage, separation, children's birthdates
• A short written timeline of recent events, if things have been moving fast — five bullet points beats an hour of reconstruction

Financial documents

• Most recent tax return (both spouses', if filed jointly or available)
• Two or three recent pay stubs for each spouse, or business income records for the self-employed
• Recent bank, retirement, and investment account statements
• A rough list of what you own and what you owe — home, vehicles, cards, loans — with ballpark values. Handwritten is fine.
• Monthly costs for the children's health insurance and any work-related child care — these feed directly into support calculations

If children are involved

• The current parenting reality: who does mornings, school runs, activities, doctor visits — a week-in-the-life sketch
• Any existing parenting plan, draft schedule, or informal arrangement you've been following
• School and activity schedules, if time-sharing logistics will be an issue

If there are court papers or agreements

• Anything you've been served — petition, injunction, motion — with the date you received it. Deadlines may already be running.
• Any prior orders or judgments — an earlier divorce, support order, or paternity judgment
• Any prenuptial, postnuptial, or separation agreement, signed or draft

Two notes worth reading

Copies, not originals. Have copies or photos on your phone; keep originals safe where they are. And gather only documents you can access legitimately — don't guess someone's passwords or open their mail to build a file. What you can't reach, the legal process can.

Questions count as preparation too. Write down the three things you most want to know by the end of the call. The consultation is yours; the checklist just makes sure the answers can be specific. Here's what the meeting itself looks like.