A divorce or family lawyer’s job is to help their client in a competent, communicative and diligent manner. However, the more the lawyer knows, the better most lawyers are going to be able to help.

A lawyer needs to be armed with the facts. They need to be provided with the details. This means that the lawyer needs to know the good, the bad and the ugly about the case.

Knowing the facts helps the lawyer present the client’s case in court. It also helps the lawyer prepare for what the other lawyer might focus on in court, which can give the lawyer the chance to think of ways to soften the blows.

One way to help the lawyer know all the critical facts is for the client to put together a chronology of key events. A client can literally sit down and map down all the critical dates with a basic summary of what took place on these dates.

For those who study history, they are using to seeing chronologies like what is described. Chronologies of the history of various countries are often put together. Chronologies of the history of wars, presidencies or the reign of various leaders are often put together.

These chronologies often include the date and a basic recitation of what took place. The recitations might be a single sentence or two.

Likewise, a client can often put together their chronology of what they view as the key events of their marriage. They can then denote the dates of these big events and what happened. The descriptions, again, can be a single sentence or two.

The chronology could denote big events that took place, like the date an affair was discovered. It could list the date the police were called relative to an alleged domestic violence incident. It might cite health issues that took place in the marriage. It might contain the date of separation and how it occurred.

In the end, the possibilities are endless. In every case, there are going to be different important dates and events that took place.

Regardless, a chronology like this can be extremely helpful for any divorce or family lawyer. The reality is that lawyers often have multiple cases and multiple clients. The ability to pull out that chronology prior to a key court date can be invaluable.

For many clients going through a divorce or family law matter, they should consider putting together a chronology or a summary of key events like this for their case. They do not have to take much time. But the value can be enormous in terms of helping the lawyer on the case.