A divorce needs paperwork and documents that vary quite a bit by state and you have to wait through mandatory periods before anything gets finalized. The biggest question for anyone in this situation isn’t if they should divorce, it’s how long it will take and what roadblocks might come up.
The timeline depends on factors that are probably out of your hands. Whether you and your spouse can agree on asset division, custody, and support payments affects it. How backed up your county family court is also matters. Some couples finish an uncontested divorce in six weeks. Others spend years on contested matters that need discovery and depositions and trial dates.
Couples who want the same outcome still have to go through a waiting period. Every state has one built into the law. Some call for 30 days but some states like California may make you wait six months. The process moves from filing to final judgment with a few stages.
You should know what to expect in the divorce filing process. Let’s go through this together.
Time You Must Wait to File
Residency is the first hurdle to get a divorce. At least one spouse has to actually live in the state for a period before anyone can file anything. Most states want proof that you’ve been there for somewhere between three months and one year.
County residency matters too. Plenty of states will ask that you live in the county where you’re going to file for a shorter period of time. This window is usually somewhere between 30 and 90 days.
New York gets a bit tougher because it changes based on where you were married and where everything ended. Sometimes you might need to wait one full year before you’re able to file.
Military families can get a break with these requirements. Service members can usually file in their home state even when they’re stationed somewhere different. This helps them avoid the headache when they have to set up residency every time that new orders come through.
States put these requirements in place to make sure nobody can shop around for friendlier laws. The court will just toss your paperwork if you file before you’ve been there long enough. Those filing fees will be gone and you’ll have to start from scratch when you qualify.
Double check what your state actually asks for before you do anything. Nobody wants to waste money on court fees and spend hours on paperwork just to find out that they filed too early.
Which Type of Divorce Do You Have?
The next step is to find out what type of divorce you’re going through. The type of case you have (contested or uncontested) changes quite a bit about how long the whole process takes and how tough it gets.
An uncontested divorce means you and your spouse can agree on everything right from the start. We’re talking about custody arrangements, asset division, support payments, and all the other big decisions that need to get made during a divorce. Most uncontested divorces get finalized somewhere between one and four months. The court has far less to sort through when the parties already agree on the terms and that speeds up the timeline.
A contested divorce happens if you and your spouse disagree about any big issue. Maybe one of you wants to stay in the house or you can’t come to an agreement on parenting time with the kids. Contested cases take at least six months to resolve at a minimum. Plenty of them can stretch well past two years if the disagreements are bad enough or if neither side wants to budge on their position.
Something to keep in mind – divorces can change categories midway through the process. A case can start out uncontested and then weeks or months down the line your spouse decides to contest some terms after all. This type of change happens more frequently. It doesn’t mean anything bad about anyone who is involved. But it will extend your timeline by quite a bit.
Every state in the country now offers no-fault divorce when couples say they have irreconcilable differences. Neither spouse has to prove the other person did something wrong or point fingers at anyone. It’s made the entire process much easier and faster for everyone who needs one. Couples can move forward with their lives without long courtroom battles about who was at fault or who caused everything to fall apart.
Which category applies to your case will shape just about everything that comes next. Take an honest look at where you stand and be straight with yourself about what you’re up against.
Documents You Need for Your Divorce
Take care of the financial documents first before you start to fill out your divorce paperwork. Your attorney and the court are going to need a picture of your finances. Most divorce cases are going to need the tax returns from at least the past two or three years. Bank statements will also need to be pulled together and organized for review. Records from any investment accounts should be pulled together and included in what you submit as well.
Property-related documents are just as necessary when you get ready to file. Mortgage paperwork needs to be in there, and the same goes for any property deeds with your name on them. Retirement accounts are another item that can’t be skipped over. Credit card statements should be a part of your collection too. Vehicle titles also need to go in the pile if the cars are owned by either spouse.
Courts actually need full financial disclosure from each spouse in the marriage before they can divide everything up in a way that’s fair. When a document or two goes missing, the entire divorce process grinds to a halt as everyone waits around for those papers to be located.
Property appraisals get skipped over pretty frequently in the early stages. If your budget lets you, bring in a professional before you file anything. An appraisal will give you a documented figure for what the house is worth in today’s market. The same goes for any other big assets that you own. When you have that official number in hand, it can stop most of the argument between spouses about what assets are actually worth.
Some spouses get tempted to hide money or move assets around when they know a divorce is coming up, and that’s one of the worst decisions anyone can make in this situation. Judges don’t mess around with this behavior at all. If the court finds out that a spouse tried to hide assets, the penalties can be pretty harsh. Fines are a possibility, and there’s also a chance of losing the legal claim to those hidden assets altogether. Sometimes a judge will actually give extra property to the other spouse just as a way to punish the person who tried to hide assets.
It’s much better to pull everything together now than to scramble for missing paperwork when you’re already in the middle of a divorce.
File Through the Courts
Once you have all your documents ready, you’ll need to get started by filing a petition with your county court clerk, it’s the official start of everything. The spouse who files first is called the petitioner (that’s just the legal term that they use). The other spouse gets called the respondent.
A filing fee comes with your petition, and most counties charge between $200 and $400 for this. Plenty of courts now accept online submissions, and it’s convenient because you won’t need to make the drive to the courthouse. The online option tends to move faster too, so you can get everything submitted without having to make in-person visits.
After you file your petition, you can’t walk over and hand the papers to your spouse yourself. The law says that you have to serve the respondent through official channels. You usually hire a process server or the sheriff’s office to get the documents delivered. This requirement is in place to make sure that there’s an official record that your spouse actually received the paperwork. Your spouse will then have some time to file their response. Most states give them somewhere between 20 and 30 days for this. If your spouse can’t be found or they refuse to accept the papers, the court can still move forward without them. You’ll probably need to ask for something called a default judgment in that situation.
When the spouses file their paperwork and they can’t agree on the big matters, the divorce turns into what’s called a contested case. Discovery is the next phase, it’s when each side gets to collect information and evidence to support their position. After the discovery finishes, most couples will try to work out a settlement agreement between themselves. A lot of courts actually make you go through a mediation before they’ll even put you on the calendar for a trial. If the mediation doesn’t work out and you still can’t agree on everything, a judge will step in and make the final decisions at the trial.
How Long Your Divorce Will Take?
After you file for divorce, the legal system is going to move at its own pace. It’s not something that you can control because courts don’t rush through divorce cases.
Almost every state has a waiting period built into the process. Sometimes, it’s just 30 days but it can be as long as six months and it depends on where you live. Your spouse could agree with you on everything. You’d still need to wait it out before a judge will sign off on the divorce.
An uncontested divorce usually gets done somewhere between one and four months total. The two of you have to cooperate and agree to the terms for it to move that fast. Contested divorces can take way longer. Disagreements about custody or property can drag your case out to anywhere from six months to well over two years. Court backlogs are a big part of why this happens. Cities and urban counties usually have packed dockets and it’s not unusual for hearings to get pushed out for months.
A handful of common problems can add months to your case and they come up frequently. Discovery disputes are one example and they happen when one spouse asks for financial records and the other spouse just drags their feet or won’t turn them over. Custody evaluations also add time because the court has to appoint an expert who will interview the parents and write up a full report. Business valuations are another delay because an accountant has to go through years of financial statements. Hidden assets are even worse since investigators need to track down bank accounts and property records that one spouse could be hiding.
Schedule conflicts between your attorney and the judge will also cause delays. Your lawyer could be ready to move forward. But the judge won’t have any calendar openings for another two months or more. It’s one of the more frustrating delays. An appraiser might take a few weeks to value the house or your spouse might flat-out ignore those document requests. These delays are normal but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating to put up with.
Alternative Options for Your Divorce Process
The full court process might not be necessary if the two of you can agree on most of the major issues in your divorce. Mediation gives you a much faster way because a neutral third party helps you work through any disagreements without ever needing a judge to get involved. Most couples finish their mediation in just two to six sessions total. The whole process usually gets done in about two to three months instead of taking one year or more like a traditional divorce does.
Most courts will make you attempt mediation before they’ll even put a trial date on the calendar, and it ends up saving everyone a lot of time and money in the long run. It’ll run you anywhere from $150 to $1,500 depending on how involved your paperwork is. Compare that price tag to $7,000 all the way to $15,000 or more for full representation by an attorney.
Before you get too excited about this option, though, it only works well in some situations. Complex assets that need to be divided or a business that you own together will probably need a lawyer involved. The same advice applies to custody battles where you and your spouse disagree. If domestic violence was part of your marriage, you should not try to handle this on your own under any circumstances whatsoever.
Terms that look pretty fair right now could hurt you financially or legally for decades down the line. Legal protections that you’re actually eligible for might get missed if you don’t know they’re available. An online form can’t tell you about details that you don’t know to ask about. Before you go with the budget option, make sure your situation is simple enough to handle without any professional help.
Do You Need Help From a Lawyer?
If you are seeking a divorce, it is recommended to understand the local regulations to follow through with them. If you have specific questions regarding your case, it can be useful to contact a local divorce attorney near you in your area to assist you with the process.
You need to go through a legal process to get divorced. The exact process changes based on where you live and if you can reach an agreement with your spouse. Most states have the same basic requirements that you’ll need to satisfy. You have to meet the residency requirements. You have to file the correct documents. You have to serve the papers correctly. And you have to wait through the mandatory timeframes. The timeline can change quite a bit based on what assets you’re splitting up and if the two of you are willing to work together. Add in some big disagreements and you could pretty easily be looking at a year or longer.
Each state has its own set of laws and they can be pretty different from one another. A general sense of how divorce works is helpful. But it won’t tell you everything that you need to know for your goals. Different jurisdictions have different laws around waiting periods. They handle property division differently. They handle custody matters differently too.
The information in this article should give you a decent foundation to work from. Just remember, the specifics of your own case are always going to matter more than any general overview. Divorce is hard no matter what and it’s very normal to feel overwhelmed by all the legal requirements. When you know what’s ahead of you though, at least some of that stress and uncertainty starts to fade. It is easier to move forward and take the next step with a bit more confidence.
At LegalMatch, you can find family law attorneys who actually know how your local courts work. They’ll give you advice that applies directly to what you’re going through. These attorneys can talk about each part of the process. They can take care of the paperwork for you. And they can advocate for what you need from start to finish. The right legal support doesn’t need to be hard to track down. At LegalMatch, we make it easy to match with the attorneys who are available and ready so you can move the process forward.
