A contentious divorce can have a tremendous impact on your life. While it can certainly have severe financial ramifications, it can also threaten your reputation and negatively affect everything from your standing in the community to the way that you’re perceived at work. It can be embarrassing, shameful, and painful. That’s why if you’re headed for a high-conflict divorce, you might want to think about all of the ways that you can protect yourself.
Using a nondisclosure agreement in your divorce
One option at your disposal is to utilize a nondisclosure agreement (NDA), sometimes referred to as an NDA, or some other type of confidentiality agreement. This agreement, negotiated and agreed to by you and your spouse, creates the boundaries with regard to what the parties can and can’t say about the divorce and each other outside of the confines of the divorce itself. This arrangement can prevent your spouse from making disparaging comments not only to the press but also on social media platforms that have far-reaching implications.
How do you know if you need an NDA?
Determining whether you need an NDA is something that only you can decide. However, if any of the following circumstances exist, you might want to think more closely about whether securing one of these agreements is right for you:
- Public perception of you can affect your work or your business
- The details of your marriage are sensitive enough to affect public perception of you
- Facts of your marriage may negatively impact the way that your children view you
- Your spouse is known for being high-conflict and will likely air all of your marriage’s intimate details in a public forum
- There’s information that predates your marriage that you’d like to keep private
- You simply want to keep your personal affairs private
If any of these factors exist in your situation, an NDA might be one of the best ways to protect your interests.
What’s included in an NDA?
Remember that the terms of these arrangements are negotiated and agreed to by both parties. Therefore, you’re probably going to have to exercise some flexibility if you want to secure one of these arrangements. With that said, here are some of the terms that you might be able to include in your NDA:
- A prohibition on disparaging each other on social media
- Restrictions on statements that are made to the press
- Limitations on disclosures pertaining to marital finances
- A prohibition on disclosing the financial positioning of one of the spouse’s businesses
- A forbiddance on releasing information about legal matters pertaining to the divorce
- Restrictions on mentioning other family members in a public way
Keep in mind, too, that you can customize the terms of your NDA to suit your needs. The trick is getting your spouse to agree, so you’ll probably want to couch it in terms that are appealing to them too.
Don’t let a high-conflict divorce harm other aspects of your life
If you have a spouse who is apt to vent their frustrations in a public way, you need to take action to protect yourself from the harm that such disclosures cause. That means delicately navigating through your high-asset divorce, utilizing the protections offered by an NDA and enforcing any protections that you’ve set in place.
There’s simply too much at stake to leave these matters to chance. That’s why you might want to discuss your concerns and potential solutions with an attorney who is experienced at handling these kinds of highly contentious divorce cases.