The Divorce Papers: A Novel (3 page)

TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI

222 CHURCH STREET
NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555
(393) 876-5678

Divorce Work Sheet: Income & Deductions and Assets & Liabilities

Attorney Work Product

INCOME & DEDUCTIONS

Sources of Income (gross)

Salary

Employer 1

Employer 2

Other Sources

Self-Employment

Bonuses

Interest

Dividends

Royalties

Gifts

Trust Disbursements

Spousal Support

Other

TOTAL INCOME

Deductions from Income

Fed Tax ____ (#) exemptions

State Tax ____ (#) exemptions FICA

Medicare

Other

TOTAL DEDUCTIONS

ASSETS & LIABILITIES

Assets (fair market value)

Real Estate

Motor Vehicles

Personal Property

Retirement/Deferred Plans

Pension

IRAs, 401(k)s

Other

Bank Accounts

Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds

Other

TOTAL ASSETS

Liabilities

Mortgages

Loans

Automobile

Home Equity

Personal

Credit Card

Education Loans

Other

TOTAL LIABILITIES

Divorce Work Sheet: Monthly Living Expenses

Attorney Work Product

HOME

    Mortgage

    Principal

    Interest

Real Estate Taxes

Rent (or co-op/condo minimum maintenance payment)

Insurance

Home Maintenance Including Allowance for Major Home Repairs

Grounds Maintenance (gardens, snow removal, lawn mowing, tree

trimming)

Utilities (heating, gas, electricity, water, sewer)

Phone

Domestic Help

Furnishings

Other

FOOD

Groceries

Children’s School Lunches

Other

CLOTHING

Clothes & Shoes

Dry Cleaning & Laundry

Other

PERSONAL CARE AND MAINTENANCE

Hairdresser

Hygiene Products

Other

TRANSPORTATION

Automobiles

    Loan Payment

    Gasoline

    Maintenance & Repairs

    Insurance

    Excise Tax

    Parking

Other Transportation

EDUCATION

Tuition & Fees

Loan Repayment

Other

CHILD CARE

Day Care

Child Support Obligations

Other

MEDICAL

Insurance

General Practitioner/Pediatrician

Gynecologist

Psychological Counselor

Physical Therapist

Dentist/Orthodontist

Eyeglasses

Prescription Drugs

Other

DEBT AND OTHER FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS

Credit Card

Personal Loans

Alimony Payments

Other

PAYMENTS TO SAVINGS

Pensions & Retirement Accounts

IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.

Savings Accounts & Investments

Other

INSURANCE

Life

Disability & Long-Term

Other

LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

Movies, Theater, Concerts, Sports Events, etc.

Sports Activities

    Lessons, Fees & Programs

    Clothes & Equipment

Eating Out

Parties & Other In-Home Entertainment

Vacations

Books, Magazines, Newspapers

Gifts

Entertainment Equipment (VCR, TV, computer, etc.)

Household Pets

    Food & Supplies

    Veterinary Expenses

Other

CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS

MISCELLANEOUS EXPENSES (Specify)

TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSES

Narragansett Statutes

Title 33 of the Narragansett Code, Sections 801ff.
Dissolution of Marriage, Annulment, and Legal Separation

Table of Contents [Redacted]

Breaking Free Without Breaking Down:

A Psychological Portrait of Divorce

Patricia Lahey

April 1997

Excerpts: page 37–39

People who get divorced are still attached. Separating is hard, even when husband and wife agree it’s the right thing. And usually they don’t agree on that any more than they agree on custody, alimony, or child support.
They have to despise each other to go through with it. Otherwise, they can’t do it; they don’t have the stamina
. They demonize the other person so that they can justify their delinquencies, their selfishness. And every party’s the injured party.
Often the person who initiates the divorce is the angrier, the more self-righteous, the more vindictive. Not in the beginning necessarily. Guilt has a part but usually only in the early stages. People want to be right but never so much as when they’re divorcing.…

In my experience, men rarely leave, no matter how unhappy they are, unless there’s another woman. They find someone, then they leave. They don’t like being alone; they don’t do it well. The woman may not be someone he wants to marry; she may simply be a transitional object, someone to get him over the hump. The obverse doesn’t hold. If the woman is the one who is asking for a separation, there may not be anyone else. A lot of women simply want out; they fantasize about being alone, sitting in a white room with no phone.

TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI

222 CHURCH STREET

NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555

(393) 876-5678

MEMORANDUM

Attorney Work Product

You won’t believe this. Mrs. Durkheim’s husband’s lawyers (K&B! Get out the shovels) had her served with the divorce summons while she was having lunch with a friend at Golightly’s. I almost fell off my chair. I would have been less surprised if one of my regular clients told me he had offed someone during lunch at Golightly’s.

Down to business. I met with Mrs. Durkheim this morning at 10:30. I think I did okay; at least I didn’t bungle it, which was a possibility given my deficits, legal and human. Mrs. Maria (Mia) Mather Meiklejohn Durkheim has retained the services of the firm (but not me, as I explained to her) to represent her in a divorce action against her husband, Dr. Daniel E. Durkheim. She signed the
Fee Agreement
on the spot, barely glancing at the terms. I advised her against this but met stubborn resistance. The interview took an hour, the discussion of the laws and the retainer another hour, and the form-filling a half hour. (I billed her account $375, for two and a half hours of work, a first for me. Not my usual $50 plus costs.) I taped the interview and asked Hannah to transcribe it so Fiona (Felix? you?) won’t have to start all over again. It gave me a taste of how your generation of lawyers works, dictating into a machine and then having the
secretary transcribe it. Associates type their memos and their briefs, too, and even do all the formatting. (I’m not being ageist, merely observant.)

My box of tissues went unused. Mrs. Durkheim did not vent. She was composed, collected, articulate. While she answered questions willingly, easily, she expected me to take the lead in the interview. She asked me to summarize the law and explain her options. I came clean early on and told her I was pinch-hitting for the firm’s ace divorce lawyer, who was out of town. She seemed fine with that.

I asked her questions about her marriage, the family’s finances, her daughter. She was very knowledgeable, no baby-wife she. I was able to pull together a rough chronology, synchronizing salary history and marital history. (See the
Divorce Work Sheet: Summary Biographies
for both Durkheims.) I explained Narragansett’s no-fault/fault statute and the principle of equitable distribution in dividing property and awarding support. I told her she could not effectively contest the divorce or refuse to cooperate. The parties do not have to agree to a divorce; if one of them wants out, she can get out. (“Not like a get,” she said.) I said it was in her interest to cooperate. A divorce, I explained, is simply a civil action which dissolves a civil union and allocates property, obligations, and progeny; it does not provide “closure” or any other cathartic function. (“I get it,” she said. “It’s all—it’s only—about money.”) I gave her a brief rundown on custody (best interest of the child) and explained the difference between joint and sole, legal and physical. I told her that most divorces were settled by negotiation, not trial, and that the parties could make any agreement they wanted so long as it wasn’t against public policy. I did my reading but reading isn’t experience. (By the way, I didn’t bill for the 2+ hours I spent doing homework last night; it didn’t seem right. A real divorce lawyer would have known it all.) If anything I said was incorrect, Fiona can set her straight.

I told her she had two options: she could wait until her husband made her an offer, or she could make an offer to him. I gave her a copy of the
Divorce Work Sheets
and told her to take a stab at pulling together a projected annual budget, post-divorce, for herself and her daughter. She said she would do whatever was necessary.

She was wonderfully clearheaded throughout. She’s very smart and she understands what she needs to do. She had even called a Realtor before coming in to get a new valuation on the family home. Can you believe she had the presence of mind to do that? The rich
are
different—and she knows it. She’s angry at her husband but her anger hasn’t clouded her judgment. She’s not out to fleece him. For one thing, she has, if not money of her own, then access to money; for another, though money is not nothing to him, he wants success more. And on that point, she doesn’t wish him well. She’s put a proper Sicilian curse on him.

Mrs. Durkheim
has
acted out a bit, though nothing too extreme. She conducted a brief, unpleasant correspondence with the woman she believes is her husband’s new lover. She brought copies with her and gave them to me. I’ve put them in the file, along with the note she wrote her husband after she had been served the summons at Golightly’s. Her epistolary style, as you will see, is very much to the point.

Mrs. Durkheim is 41 years old but looks younger. She’s tall (my height) with blond hair, straight black eyebrows, and eyes that look black. Although her Christian name is Maria, she goes by Mia and always has. She was named for her mother, who was called by her full name. Since her mother’s death, her father sometimes calls her Maria. She doesn’t think he does it out of sentiment, only carelessness.

I like Maria Durkheim. She still has a sense of humor (which was the first casualty of my parents’ divorce), and she loves her child. She probably sounds harder in the interview than she actually is. I don’t think her brave talk is all bravado—maybe half. She is determined not to feel sorry for herself, at least not publicly. Good for her. Dr. Durkheim’s father died in 1992, his mother in September, 1998. He inherited a small amount of cash and a 10-year-old car.