Everyone hates divorces, but unfortunately they do happen. But what can people do to prevent getting everything they own taken away from them?
The simplest solution? Patch things up.
Now the first thing I have to advise, if not for any other reason but because it's the simplest solution, is to always try to patch things up; if you really do love the person your with, you have to try to make things work, clear up any mistakes and try to not repeat them or make new ones.
Now there are many ways, more or less expensive, which will help you in a case (usually settled as they don't make it to court) against your husband/wife.
I realize that what you're gonna now read might seem completely hurtful, deceitful and just plain mean, but it will give you a better chance at keeping your properties.
Be sure to have a pre-nup.
First things first, unless you really, but I mean REALLY trusted your partner you should've signed a pre-nup. This would've been the simplest thing to do, everyone keeps their own things and that's that. Sometimes, though, people don't do these things because they are either too embarrassed or they just don't think it's necessary.
Now on to the dirty work.
Obtain evidence of unfaithfulness.
One of the main reasons of divorce is one party not being completely faithful. As a result, when the second party discovers this the first reaction is of rage and immediate confrontation, resulting in the loss of evidence and the chance at winning the divorce.
Your best bet would be to play along and pretend not to know, take a video/photos of the person being unfaithful and voila - you got yourself your first piece of indisputable evidence, which will show exactly who is responsible for the failing of the marriage. I would then suggest to mail the video/photo to yourself and sign it anonymously.
Now there are various ways of obtaining these videos/photos, you can hire a P.I. or do it yourself. Just carefully follow around your loved one for a few days and see if anything happens. Give them a call while your following them as to see if they lie about their whereabouts. Keep a close eye on them and don't jump into any hasty conclusions, remember you have got to keep it a secret, don't show them the tape and claim you did it yourself, make sure you get it through the mail that way you won't have to explain yourself.
Now on to child custody.
Child custody is one of the hardest things to achieve for a parent. They are long and treacherous battles which bring out the worst in a person. Normally he who gets custody also gets the house.
This is where your video-camera/photo camera comes into play. Make sure you record any behavior which could represent ineptitude of the other parent, record them while drinking a lot of beer, or in ambiguous situations, taken completely out of context so to make the judge think that the parent is incapable of raising a child correctly. Obviously this can only work if you keep it a secret that you know about them being unfaithful, keeping it a secret is an essential element as the parent will think that everything is fine and keep their guard down, thus giving you access to unlimited elements. Remember, your objective is to show why that parent would be inept and incapable of raising a child.
A good thing to do would be to start doing volunteer work, this will give a better image of you in the community, thus making you look like the better person in a court room (assuming it get there). Remember the more scandalous the video the more chances there are of getting what you want.
I realize just how horrible these things sound, but if you want to pay as little alimony as possible or not any then this is the way to go.
Once again though I would like to advise to try to find a way to forgive.
If you find out about it keep it a secret for a little while, do some soul searching and ask yourself if you would be willing to forgive, if you are then confront them, don't show them straight away that you would forgive them, make them sweat for it, remember it's much easier to confront someone with a clear mind than if clouded by judgments.
