Settlement Conference question

[mr.mom]

I have looked around but haven't found the answer to these questions.

Both of us are self represented and heading to sc at end of March.

Do I bring ALL of my evidence to sc? (Including tape recordings to prove when she lies about something)

What does a "friend of the court" do? and should I hire a lawyer for that?

Thank you

[yhm]

Settlement conference is just a case conference on steroids. You write a brief outlining the issues and the evidence. You do not present evidence, you present your position. An Offer of Settlement is mandatory. Think hard about what your spouse would get at trial and make a sweeter offer than that. Then the settlement judge is likely to tell them to take it, and if they don't you go to trial and are presumptively entitled to costs (including your own time if you are self represented) if your spouse fails to better what you offered.

[yhm]

If either you or stbx wants the house, and you are both reasonable, you probably just sign the house and the debt over to the party that wants it.

There is no wiggle room for CS. Just pay the guideline rate.

You haven't given enough info. for SS. If one spouse earns less than the other, some amount of SS is likely. Read the SSAG and work through the calculation. Offer slightly more than the median quantum and slightly more than the median duration.

Duly serve your offer asap, and you will be presumptively entitled to costs if it ends up going to trial, and the judgment is no more favorable to your stbx than your offer. You can find the details by googling for family law rules. There is a whole section on offers and costs.

[yhm]

You probably want to make the offer have 3 severable parts:

A division of property excluding the house, where she gives you xxx in cash and the assets/debts are assumed as you state

B you offer xxx in lump-sum spousal support (so if both A and B are accepted, the xxx cancel) in fulfilment of all past & future SS obligations

C either you take the house & mortgage, or stbx takes house & mortgage, or you sell house and split any residual value/liability

[Rioe]

Your take on this scenario

Home purchased for -----243k
Owing on home----223k
Joint line of credit debt---approx 40k
Home appraised at $254,900

if house is sold, lawyer, Realtor and debts will have to be paid off and both parties will still owe as you can see

Would you offer to buy the other party out and take on the LOC debt as their share, whilst also offering them to keep the car worth 10k, and pay full table amount CS for 1 child in a shared custody?

Or

Would you just sell the home?

Which is the most logical option here

First of all, keep CS completely out of the equalization. It doesn't belong there. CS is very standardized and unless you have an unusually cooperative ex, you shouldn't mess with the court formula. One child in shared custody will be the CS difference between the two incomes, paid from the higher to the lesser. Nothing else should come into play or you just create wiggle room for an uncooperative ex. There are stories of people negotiating to give up their share of a home instead of paying CS, and then getting taken to court because they aren't paying CS and being forced to do so without equalization being reopened.

Can either of you afford the mortgage of the house on your own? If neither of you can, the house will have to be sold, there won't be any other option. So find that out first.

Have either of you got any other assets that could come into play? A pension? Including that may help divide things up more easily. You can divide it unequally to account for one person having to take on the LoC, then sell the house and divide the proceeds equally.

If one of you is keeping the house, pure math says that person should also get the LoC and the car. Then that person is up 2k over the other in equalization, and should pay them $1k cash. Presto, equalization is done. And probably that 2k and more is gone in real estate fees anyways. Perhaps the person that didn't get anything will be paying the keeper a bit of cash to make it all work out.

Don't mention SS at all. Make her prove a need/entitlement.

[standing on the sidelines]

maybe you should start your own thread instead of hi-jacking other peoples?