Every divorce attorney knows how important it is to present the right image of their client to the judge, and it will do nothing but help your cause if you are able to cast a negative light on the opposing party. So if the opposing party has committed an affair, any good divorce attorney will be able to get that information in front of the judge whether that evidence will have a direct impact on the matters at hand or not.
A client’s moral character can be a major factor in many aspects of a divorce settlement due to the broad range of discretion a judge wields in court.
Whether a judge consciously determines a party’s affair has flagrantly broken the vows of their marriage or the affair merely affects the court proceedings on a subconscious level, it is a safe bet that judge will not be lenient when it comes to the property settlement, alimony award or other factors he or she has control over.
This is particularly important to keep in mind since it is notoriously difficult to overturn a divorce ruling because of the discretion allowed to family court judges. That brief tryst may have seemed worth it at the time, but it could end up turning into an unusually high (but within the bounds of law) alimony obligation and lopsided property settlement that will continue to affect you financially for the rest of your life.
With the advent of the Internet, it is easier now than ever before to step outside the boundaries of marriage and engage in an extramarital affair. However, these have a tendency to be discovered one way or another and the ramifications stretch far beyond simply ruining a marriage.
According to the slogan of Ashley Madison, “Life is short. Have an affair.” The first half of that statement is certainly true, but is life really short enough to risk the consequences of an affair in the long run?
Joseph E. Cordell is the principal partner of Cordell & Cordell, a domestic litigation firm focused on representing men in divorce. Since co-founding the firm with his wife, Yvonne, in 1990, he and his team of almost 200 attorneys spread across more than 100 offices in 29 states and the United Kingdom have helped tens of thousands of men going through divorce.