The most common form of divorce in Austria is the amicable divorce. The prerequisite for this is agreement on custody, contact rights, child and spousal support, and the division of assets. These points are recorded in the divorce agreement. Mistakes are often made in the drafting of this agreement. The
False savings: There is no requirement to hire a lawyer in divorce proceedings. One of the biggest mistakes, however, is to save money on the professional during the divorce. Often the content to be settled grows over your head. As soon as the facts of the case are a bit more complicated, you should therefore not draw up the divorce agreement without a lawyer.
Attention: The divorce agreement regulates your new life. Therefore, you should pay sufficient attention to negotiating the agreement. If you neglect it, you may end up with invalid provisions or provisions that are detrimental to you. Lack of attention can thus lead to a waste of time and, as a consequence, to (further) emotional tearing.
Use of templates: You can find a variety of divorce agreement templates on the Internet. However, these do not come from any official sources or are from other countries, such as Germany or Switzerland. Therefore, the pre-printed content does not correspond to the legal situation in Austria, nor to your individual situation.
Emotions: With the end in sight, people like to draw the wrong conclusions from the consensual nature of the separation. Even if the proceedings are not contentious and there is leniency for marital misconduct, it remains a divorce proceeding. As before, asserting your legal position is therefore a top priority. If you are not represented by an attorney, a seemingly friendly spouse will have an easier time dragging out negotiations or concealing important circumstances (e.g., about finances). In the end, false friendliness has nothing to do with a sustainable solution for you.
In order to enjoy the best possible protection of your legal position in a divorce, you should consult a lawyer. This concerns on the one hand the drafting and negotiation of the divorce agreement as well as assistance in the proceedings themselves.
