Filing Divorce Papers

The Facts

Once you have decided that you want a divorce, you will probably want to go ahead with filing divorce papers to set the process in motion. How long it takes to get a divorce depends on your jurisdiction (your state or country), but it is always true that the sooner you start with the divorce papers, the sooner you will get your divorce.

The simplest, quickest and cheapest type of divorce is an uncontested divorce. This is the situation where both husband and wife agree to the divorce, and you have also agreed all other matters that require discussion at the end of a marriage, such as child support and custody, who gets the house, alimony, how any joint debts will be handled, and division of savings and other property.

An uncontested divorce does not have to go to court because all of the matters that would require a court decision have already been agreed. However, the agreement still has to be written out, signed by both parties and submitted to the court.

In the simplest cases it is possible to do this yourself. This might be a situation where there are no children of the marriage and no complicated property or debt issues. Perhaps both partners are working and you are simply going to divide up the property that you have and go your separate ways with no question of alimony.

If the situation is a little more complicated than that but you are sure that you will be able to reach agreement on everything, you might want to hire one lawyer to act for both of you. The lawyer will help you to draw up an agreement that will satisfy the court, and will raise any questions that you might not have considered. This will be cheaper than hiring separate attorneys, and it is often more amicable too.

However, even if you both want the divorce, you will have to go to court if there are any matters that you cannot agree on. In that situation it is better to have your own lawyer.

The first step in filing divorce papers is to complete the petition for divorce, which may be called Original Petition For Divorce or Letter Of Complaint in different states. This is filed with the court by one spouse (the petitioner), and then the Sheriff's office will serve it on the other spouse (the respondent or defendant).

And what if your spouse has filed for divorce without your consent? Can you stop the divorce by moving to an unknown address or refusing to accept the divorce papers being served on you? Unfortunately the answer is no. If your spouse cannot find you, they can simply serve the papers by publishing a notice in the newspapers in most states.

If you want to try to stop the divorce, it is better to allow the divorce papers to be served on you so that you are fully informed of what is happening. Then see a lawyer about how to contest the case in the best way, and talk to a marriage counselor at the same time.

by J. D. Blocker - May 19, 2010

Back to Top

###

Source: http://www.LegalAdviceOnline.org