Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce - Emily Doskow [64]
Closing Arguments
After all the testimony has been heard and all the evidence has been presented, the lawyers get a chance to sum up their cases to the judge. This time, they can argue all they want. Sometimes, the judge asks for closing arguments in writing-this is more likely if there are sticky legal issues that the judge wants time to consider, or if the trial has gone on for a long time.
The Judge's Ruling
You almost certainly will not find out who wins and who loses as soon as the trial is over (unless you live in Texas or Georgia and a jury heard your trial). Usually the judge will not rule from the bench immediately at the end of the trial, although you may have a sense of what's coming from comments the judge made during the trial. Instead, the judge takes the case "under submission" and takes some time to consider the evidence and review the legal arguments. The judge then prepares a written ruling.
After the Trial
If you have gone all the way through a trial and received a ruling, or came close to trial and then settled, you will probably be feeling about as wrung out as you ever remember-though you're probably relieved that the trial itself is over. But you are not quite clone yet.
Attorneys' Fees
When a trial ends, there's always a winner and a loser. In most places, the winner has the right to ask the court to have the loser pay back attorneys' fees that the winner expended on the trial. The judge usually has the power to say yes or no to this request, and will base the decision on the winner's resources, the loser's ability to pay, and the relative merit of each side's position. For example, if the judge thinks you were completely unreasonable in your child support demands and thus wasted the court's time arguing about it and the opposing lawyer's time preparing for the argument you might have to pay your spouse's attorneys' fees.
The very real possibility that you'll be forced to pay your spouse's attorneys' fees should be another disincentive for going all the way through a trial.
The End Result, in Writing
After the trial or arbitration, or after you finally settle, the decisions that were made must be reduced to a document that's called a "judgment." The judgment is the court's way of officially saying what the outcome of your case was, and making a record of what each spouse is required to do in the future.
The process starts with the judge, who submits a written ruling to both of the lawyers. Then the lawyer for the winning party prepares another document an "order" or "decree" that sets out the rulings and orders that the judge made, as well as any other matters that you and your spouse agreed to outside of the trial. This document tells you what your rights and responsibilities are once the divorce is final. The other lawyer reviews it, and there may be some haggling, but eventually a final version is approved by the judge. It has the force of law. In other words, if you or your spouse ever violate its terms, the other person can ask the court to enforce the judgment.
The final divorce order that the judge issues is the document that declares that you are legally divorced.
Appeals
Even when it's all over, it may not be all over. If either you or your spouse believes that the judge in your trial made a serious mistake in applying the law, you have the right to appeal the judgment to a higher court. These are called courts of appeal or appellate courts. Because appeals are expensive and take a long time to resolve, they are quite uncommon. In many cases, there's simply no legal error on which to base an appeal. And sometimes, even though there was a mistake, it didn't affect the outcome of the trial, which is also required for a successful appeal.
If you do appeal, then while you wait for your case to slowly move through the appellate system you will have to comply with existing court orders about your kids, because custody and visitation can't be kept in limbo. But if the appeals court eventually finds that your trial judge was wrong,