Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce - Emily Doskow [10]
Assuming you use professionals for these tasks, you should he able to get everything done for between $2,500 and $5,000, depending on where you live and how much lawyers and actuaries charge. (There's more about this in Chapters 3 and 4.)
If you and your spouse both stay on top of all the tasks you need to take care of, you should be able to finalize your divorce as soon as the waiting period (every state has one) is over. So depending on your state's requirements, you could be finishing your divorce within a few months, or you may have everything done and just be waiting around for the date when you can file the final papers.
A legal document preparer can help you with your divorce paperwork. In many states, legal document preparers, paralegals, or legal typists (different names for the same job) can help you prepare court forms for a divorce. They cannot give you legal advice, but they can direct you to helpful resources and then make sure the forms are properly filled out so that your court process goes smoothly. There's more about this in Chapter 15.
Default Divorce
The court will grant a divorce by "default" if you file for divorce and your spouse doesn't respond. The divorce is granted even though your spouse doesn't participate in the court proceedings at all. A default divorce might happen, for example, if your spouse has left for parts unknown and can't be found. (How to manage a default divorce is discussed in Chapter 3.)
Fault and No-Fault Divorce
In the old days, someone who wanted a divorce had to show that the other spouse was at fault for causing the marriage to break down. Even when both people were equally eager to get out of the marriage and the divorce was uncontested, they had to decide which of them would take the legal blame, and decide which of the fault grounds they would use in asking the judge to grant the divorce. Adultery was the most popular choice, but abuse, abandonment, extreme cruelty (inflicting unnecessary emotional or physical suffering on the other spouse), and the physical inability to engage in sexual intercourse that wasn't disclosed before marriage also made the list.
Now, every state offers the option of "no-fault" divorce-and in many states, no-fault is the only option. In a no-fault divorce, instead of proving that one spouse is to blame, you merely tell the court that you and your spouse have "irreconcilable differences" or have suffered an "irremediable breakdown" of your relationship. In some states, however, in order to get a no-fault divorce you must also have lived apart for a specified period of time.
Covenant Marriage and Divorce
If you entered into a "covenant marriage" in Arizona, Arkansas, or Louisiana, you must request a divorce on fault grounds-you may not use no-fault divorce procedures. You're required to engage in marital counseling before you can file for divorce, and the waiting period before your divorce is final may be longer than that for a noncovenant marriage. You'll definitely need to seek a lawyer's help with your divorce, especially if you and your spouse disagree about getting a divorce.
And carryovers of the old fault system remain. In some states, you have a choice of using fault or no-fault grounds for divorce. Even if you choose no-fault, some of these states' courts still use fault as a factor in dividing property and determining custody and support. This basically means that one spouse may accuse the other of misconduct and argue that it should affect support awards or the division of property.
It's unlikely you would choose to file for divorce on any of the fault grounds if your divorce is uncontested. The only reasons you might choose a fault divorce are if you don't want to wait out the separation period, or if you anticipate a major fight over property or support. However, if you do intend to argue that fault should factor into property division