Most parties who are terminating their marriage would like to avoid the financial and emotional cost of filing for divorce and taking the case through the court system, which many times results in extreme emotional and financial cost for the parties and can take a substantial amount of time to finalize.  Many of our clients attempt to resolve their disputes by negotiation either directly between themselves or with the assistance of attorneys, and at times through a process called collaborative law in which the attorneys and the parties meet directly in attempt to resolve the issues regarding termination of their marriage.  During negotiations, the parties typically have not filed for divorce, and therefore there are no court orders in place.  There are many times, however, when filing for divorce initially and then negotiating makes more sense in order to preserve assets and reduce the chances that one party will increase marital debts without the knowledge or approval of the other party.  We have encountered cases where one party has been negotiating in good faith and the other has been slowly depleting marital assets, paying his/her individual bills and leaving the marital bills unpaid, and increasing balances on joint credit cards, lines of credit, and other accounts.  In such a case, when the court makes a final decision on division of assets and debts, they will likely divide the debts and accounts equally between the parties, absent the ability of one party to show the court that the other party has engaged in financial misconduct, which may not be equitable given these circumstances.  To prevent situations like this, consulting with a professional prior to any lengthy discussions with your spouse regarding the terms of the termination of your marriage is always a good idea.  An attorney will help you learn your rights and make sure you are aware of the possible negative effects of long term negotiating without having restraining orders in place to prevent the other party from engaging in the type of potential misconduct described above.