What do I do if the Judge Won’t Sign My Decree?

So you tried to handle your divorce yourself? You filed the Original Petition for Divorce, got the other party served, reached your agreements, filed the Final Decree of Divorce, and then appeared in front of the Judge (or filed an Affidavit) and the Judge said, “Sorry, I cannot sign this.” Where do you go from there? You find yourself googling (or ChatGPT) “What do I do if the Judge Wont’s Sign My Decree?”  As with nearly every situation the answer is “it depends.”

When you googled, or plugged into AI,  the exact question of this blog post your answers were probably something similar to these: (1) request a hearing; (2) let your lawyer handle it; (3) contact the court clerk; (4) find resources like the law library. You may even have found a few lawyer websites talking about this same thing. In the end, it all depends on what the Judge needs. Maybe the decree doesn’t contain the right language. Maybe you are asking for something the Judge would not normally approve. Maybe the Judge cannot approve the decree due to legal constraints.

So now that you have read that far, let me tell you how I am different. If you have gotten to this point you need a simple solution to your problem. More than likely, there is something wrong with the way your decree is drafted. Occasionally, the Judge will not sign the decree because you are asking for something that the Judge doesn’t usually approve. How are you supposed to know what the issue is? Schedule an “Uncontested Divorce Consultation” on my website at Book an Appointment for a free 30 minute consultation to see how I can help you. If I am able to help you I will tell you what needs to be done and the cost involved during that meeting.