Paul Horton: Uncontested Divorces

In an uncontested divorce, you and your spouse achieve an agreement about the greater part of the issues in your divorce. Once you’ve achieved these agreements, you don’t need to go into court and contend. Rather, you document court shapes and a “conjugal settlement agreement” that details the agreements you’ve made about how you need to isolate your property and obligations, what your custody courses of action for your children will be, and whether support payments will change hands. Your settlement, and your final divorce, will have to be approved by a judge, which shouldn’t be any problem. The judge will usually approve a settlement agreement unless it’s clear that the terms are completely unfair to one person or were arranged when one person was under duress.

Cost of an Uncontested Divorce

An uncontested divorce is the least costly divorce that you can possible get. However, even it will make some real progress on your wallet. You’ll have to figure out how to prepare and file the court papers, you’ll have to pay filing fees, and you may want to get some help from a divorce lawyer . You might also buy books or other materials to help you. (Your court’s website may provide free help, too—it’s worth looking, as many court websites have useful information.)

Get Help with your Divorce

You’ll likely have the capacity to deal with your uncontested divorce with almost no assistance from a legal advisor, however you might need to request that a legal counselor investigate your paperwork and, maybe, to audit your settlement agreement. Many couples use a counselor or a mediator to help them come to agreement on property and custody issues. And if you or your spouse has retirement benefits through work, you might need to hire an actuary to value them or a lawyer to prepare the special court order you’ll need to divide them.

Assuming you use professionals for these tasks, you should be able to get everything done for between $2,500 and $5,000, depending on where you live and how much lawyers charge as well as the court filing fees and service fees.

Stay Away from Legal Document Preparers

A legal document preparer can really mess up your divorce paperwork. Be very careful. In numerous states, document preparers, paralegals, or notary or typists (different names for a similar activity) can enable you to plan court frames 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. Because they can’t give you legal advise, and some of them have no idea what they are doing – other than selling you some paperwork – you really should speak with a divorce lawyer.

How Long Will an Uncontested Divorce Take?

In the event that you and your spouse both remain over every one of the undertakings you have to deal with, you ought to have the capacity to conclude your divorce when the holding up period (each state has one) is finished. 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.

Free Consultation with Divorce Lawyer in Utah

If you have a question about divorce law or if you need to start or defend against a divorce case in Utah call Ascent Law at (801) 676-5506. We will help you.