What do I need to do to prepare for a Divorce or Custody fight?? Document! Document! Document! Once you decide that you may be involved in Family Law litigation, carefully document items of interest:
	It is legal in Texas to tape record a conversation as long as you have the permission of one of the parties to the conversation (including yourself). Documenting vindictive or retaliatory statements, child exchanges or promises of hidden assets are useful. Get a wall calendar, a blue pen and a red pen. When something good occurs such as the spouse getting in on time, a visitation, paycheck, etc., mark it in light blue. Develop a shorthand that is understandable to third persons to identify what it is and include the time on the appropriate date. However, when a spouse is late, lies, misses a visitation, fails to fulfill a promise, makes a threatening phone call, etc., mark it in red and document it with the same coding reasonably understandable to a third person. The rules of evidence may allow admission of contemporaneously created evidence to summarize testimony. When it looks like somebody bled all over your calendar from the red ink, your lawyer can blow up that calendar to wall size for the consideration of the jury or judge. To testify, simply "Bubba was always late picking up Junior" is lame and has little effect. However, testimony that states "Bubba was late so often I began keeping a calendar that I marked in red as to the exact time he actually arrived to pick up Junior . . ." is extraordinarily effective when accompanied by an overwhelmingly red calendar.
Document your finances thoroughly. Once troubles begin, obtain copies of tax returns, check registers, credit card bills, itemized cell phone bills, financial statements, bank loan balances, income documents, trust and estate documents, pre/postnuptial agreements, and any other documentation. Obtain a list of your spouse's credit cards, ATM cards, bank accounts, and stock ownership early on. Discretely make copies of these documents and return the originals to where you found them. You may be able to document your spouse is lying to the judge later by your spouse not knowing you have these copies. When possible, check your spouse's pager, cell phone, or PDA for recent activity. If you are computer literate, check community property computers and print off emails of interest.
	DISCRETELY video tape child transfers.
If you have failed to document a recent bad act, the next time you communicate, try to get them on tape discussing the prior bad act. Use one tape per conversation, label and file the tapes.
	Advise your attorney of the copies, video and audio tapes that you have copies of. Listen to their instructions thereafter explicitly. Change your will and insurance policies to remove your spouse. The Texas Probate Code removes a spouse from the chain of inheritance once a divorce is final unless reaffirmed after the divorce. However, you may be in litigation for a long period before a Final Decree of Divorce is entered and Bearden Investigative Agency, Inc. has been involved in numerous cases where the death of a spouse has been plotted for insurance or inheritance proceeds. Go to an attorney of your choice EARLY. Those who get solid legal advice early on tend to do much better throughout the litigation process