How To Deal With Telephone Calls From Your (Former) Spouse

On a daily basis, the attorneys at our firm get are bombarded with questions from clients about how to use - or not use - the telephone to communicate with their spouse - or former spouse.

My best advice: use technology. Get an answering machine or set-up a voicemail program with your local phone company. These devices allow you to screen your calls, and you can return the calls of the people who you want to speak to. If your partner calls and curses - or threatens you - you can bring that to court for the judge to hear.

The different telephone companies offer services that may also be worthwhile to you at this point. Consider the following:

Call Tracing: This traces calls so that you can prove to the court who made the call.

Call Blocking: This locks out calls from certain numbers. You can block out or soon-to-be or former spouse.

Dial "69": This identifies the number from which the last call to you originated from.

Call Forwarding: From my own personal experience, this works wonders! I had a call every morning between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m. These calls (and pleadings) both upset me and deprived me of sleep. I forwarded the number to the local police department and the calls soon stopped!