Protecting Your Divorce-Related Documents

Keeping your divorce documents safe, from accidental damage or a spiteful partner, can mean the difference between an easy (fast and simple) and a difficult (protracted) divorce. Your passports, property deeds, bank records, and your kid's birth certificates will all be necessary during the divorce. Here are a few tips on how to secure them:

Have a Separate Hard Disk

Storing your documents on your home computer isn't a good idea on several fronts. For example, you can easily lose them all if the computer crashes or if your partner accesses the documents. Therefore, copy them to a separate hard disk, memory card or flash drive, and then store the memory device in a secure location (such as a safety deposit box). Even hard copies can be saved in this manner if you first scan them.

Upload Them to The Cloud

Storing the documents locally, for example on your computer's hard drive, is risky; anything that damages the computer's memory can delete the documents. At the same time, relying on hard copies alone isn't a smart idea. Therefore, upload the documents to the cloud where damage to a single device won't affect them. A further advantage of cloud storage is that you can easily access your documents from any location if you have internet access. Remote access may come in handy, for example, if your partner locks you out of the house.

Don't Rely on Soft Copies Alone

Don't just rely on soft copies of the documents alone; save their hard copies too. You don't want to lose your documents ifyour computer crashes or your partner accesses and deletes them. Therefore, make a few copies and store them in a safe location, preferably outside the house. The most important ones you can store in a safety deposit box while the rest can go to a self-storage unit.

Make Duplicate Copies of Everything

This is a simple, but effective, measure of ensuring that you don't lose essential documents in case a copy is lost. Keep the extra copies in separate locations. For example, your house may burn down and destroy your documents, setting your divorce back by a couple of weeks or even months. That won't be the case if you have an extra copy somewhere safe outside the house.

Store all your personal, identification, and documents; don't assume that something is irrelevant because you don't know when it might be needed. In fact, you should go a step further and take pictures of valuable items (such as paintings or jewelry) in your house, and store them too.

Contact an attorney, such as from Cooper Levenson Attorneys At Law, for more help.