Properly notating and qualifying entries on a Financial Affidavit for use in Domestic Relations  Court can prevent a lot of subsequent problems.

Some family law lawyers do not take financial affidavits seriously and simply hand up to the Court whatever the client has filled out on the State form (by hand), and sworn to, without really reviewing it.  Not only is this a dereliction of our duty to our client, it could set them up for major problems down the road.

Take, for example, a client who is working a seasonal job during the winter holidays.  Perhaps they pick up 10 or 15 hours per week working at Lowes, etc, with no intention working the job into the new year.  If this additional income is not somehow qualified or explained on the sworn financial affidavit presented in court, the client may be charged with this income at a hearing many months later.

Unfortunately the state form created by our Supreme Court is woefully inadequate for qualifying and explaining the entries. Fortunately, we have a remedy for this oversight in Settlyd Family Law Software.

Settlyd allows unlimited notations, qualifications and explanations.  Literally every entry on the financial affidavit can be notated, albeit that not being a good practice! All notations are neatly organized by category and printed on the back page as an addendum.   

So why create a sloppy, poorly annotated, hard to understand Financial Affidavit when you can do so much better!

Guy Vitetta

Charleston