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over it with you, and send it to your spouse's lawyer, who will review it and then go over it with your spouse. After the document is agreeable to everyone, one of the lawyers will probably also have to draft papers that can be submitted to a judge, who will sign them and grant the divorce. |
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In some states, even when everything is agreed on, one of you might still have to go to court to testify. Your lawyer would conduct your examination, asking you legally required questions about the breakdown of your marriage while you sit witness in front of a judge. |
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Do you really need a lawyer if you and your spouse have agreed on everything? In that instance, is there really anything for an attorney to do? Of course you can get a quick divorce without a lawyer, but if you and your spouse could have any outstanding issues, you're better off having legal counsel from the start. |
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Some spouses never answer the divorce papers they receive. They just don't care, or they figure they'll let you do all the work to get the divorce (kind of the way it was in the marriage, maybe). Do you have to wait until your spouse responds before you can move ahead? |
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Usually not. If you can prove that your spouse personally received the papers the law requires you to have served, you can probably get a divorce on defaultyour spouse's failure to respond. Although by law your spouse might have had 20 or 30 days to respond to the divorce papers before you are entitled to a default judgment, your judge might want you to wait three months before actually submitting the rest of the papers you need to actually be granted a divorce, just in case your spouse decides to respond after all. |
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What's the Downside to a Default Divorce? |
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1. In some jurisdictions, your spouse can open the default within one year of its being granted if he or she can show good cause why it should be opened. That means your spouse can march into court and claim she never got the papers, or was sick at the time, or didn't understand them, and wants a second chance. If the judge agrees that there is a reason to open the default, he will do that, and your divorce will, in effect, have to start all over again. |
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2. People tend to follow agreements more than they follow orders. If you and your spouse negotiated an agreement, the chances are better that your spouse will abide by it than if a judge set down in an order what your spouse has to pay because he didn't come to court. |
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3. You may actually do better if your spouse does show up in court. Maybe you can't prove how much money she earns, but if she were there, your lawyer could |
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