You’ve probably come to this page because you are thinking about a divorce and are unsure of the process. You may have been thinking about divorce for a minute or maybe years. In either case, you are gathering information. This post will take you through the basic requirements of a divorce. This post will focus on the process for an uncontested divorce. An uncontested divorce means that both parties agree to the divorce and are in agreement with regard to property division, child support, conservatorship of the children and visitation with the children. The next few posts will talk about different issues that arise during a divorce, whether uncontested or contested.
1. You will need to file an Original Petition for Divorce
The Original Petition needs to include the names of the parties, whether the Court has jurisdiction to hear the case, the names of children or a recitation that no children were born during the marriage, if there are children – what type of conservatorship is being sought, whether there was fault in the breakup, whether you are seeking a greater share of the estate and any other relief you are seeking. The closing of the petition will state that you pray the court will grant you all relief requested.
2. Service or Waiver of Service
Typically if this is an uncontested divorce the other party will sign a Waiver of Service which just means that you do not have to get a citation issued by the Court and have a process server or Constable serve them with the divorce. Once you have the Waiver of Service you must wait 10 days after the Waiver has been filed with the Court before you can finalize the divorce. There is another timeline that I will discuss in number 3 below. Whichever amount of time is longer is when you can finalize the divorce.
If the other party does not sign a Waiver of Service, then you have the Court issue a citation and either have a process server or a Constable serve them with the divorce. After they have been served they have 20 days plus the Monday after the 20 days in which to file an Answer. If no Answer is filed by that time, then you can finalize the divorce. Again there is another timeline that I will discuss in number 3 below. Whichever amount of time is longer is when you can finalize the divorce.
3. 60 Day Waiting Period
Before you can finalize any divorce you must wait 60 days from the date of filing the Original Petition for Divorce. There are limited situations in which this waiting period does not apply, but generally speaking you have to wait the 60 days.
As referenced in number 2 above, if the Waiver has not been on file for 10 days or the time to file an Answer has not expired when the 60 days waiting period is complete, you must wait for those time periods to end before you can finalize the divorce.
4. Prepare a Final Decree of Divorce
The Final Decree of Divorce will detail out the agreements you have reached with respect to property division, child support, conservatorship of the children, visitation with the children, as well as any other terms that are part of the divorce. In order to be enforceable, the decree must be specific enough to ensure that the party knew what they were supposed to do, when they were supposed to do it and how they were supposed to do it. If the decree is not specific enough you may need to clarify the order to provide that specificity in order to enforce the order.
5. Prove Up Hearing
One party to the divorce must stand in front of the Judge and testify to the facts of the case. This is to ensure that the Judge has heard evidence to support the orders in the Final Decree of Divorce and to ensure that the Court has jurisdiction over the matter.
These are generally the steps involved with an uncontested divorce. In the next posts I will take different issues that arise in uncontested and contested divorces and discuss how these affect the process of a divorce.