Sunday, June 1, 2008

Free Or Paid Divorce Records

By Ben Jen

Statistically, about half the marriages in the country end up in divorce. That's why it makes sense to be sure about your partner's divorce background whenever engagement or marriage is on the horizon. It's no trouble at all nowadays to run a quick free divorce record check on someone. Whether it's for your self or on behalf of somebody else, it's always better to be safe than sorry.

A great deal of information can be derived from Divorce Records. They contain the personal particulars of the separating spouses and children such as names, ages and birth dates. Marriage date, place and even time and who performed the solemnization or ceremony may also be available. Financial information, custody, alimony, restraining orders, filing numbers, final decree and so forth, where applicable, are all key divorce records.

A divorce record search can also be used to determine the official marital status. This is important especially if someone is intending to remarry. In order to remarry, someone has to be legally divorced from the previous marriage to be eligible. Often, people fail to follow through on formalizing and legalizing their divorce, especially in cases when it was uncontested and a response was not filed. Also, only certified copies of the divorce certificate is acceptable in most cases, thus entailing a longer waiting time in the application of the divorce records.

Divorce records are legislated as one of the public vital records. As such, anybody's divorce records are rightfully accessible by anyone as long as procedures are followed. They can be requested in person, by mail, telephone, fax or online through the internet at the responsible government agency tasked with the function. Of all the options available, the online method is by far the most popular way to retrieve divorce records.

There are basically two versions of online divorce records. The first version is the free-of-charge (FOC) version which is obtainable from government sources and, to some degree, commercial providers as promotions or enticements. Such online divorce records will just about suffice for exploratory and other casual purposes. The second version is the fee-based one from commercial information brokers. It is recommended when the search is more purposeful, especially when it's serious or formal. It is also generally of higher standards and unlike public sources which tend to be disparate and non- standardized, come with plug-and-play readiness.

Fee-based online divorce records are abundantly available on the internet. There are very good value-for-money to be found if you incur a little patience to shop around a little bit. Competition is keen so fees are really reasonable. Another approach is to check out the various review sites. The top-tier ones are typically very professional in their reviews and recommendations. They do get their cut from the referrals but they have also to put in their due diligence for that.

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