Monday, June 9, 2008

Protect Yourself In Divorce

By Mona Dock S.

It is never easy to go through a divorce procedure, but it is certainly possible to end a marriage amicably with little or no difficulty at all. However, this is often not the case.

Divorce lawyers are the one that benefit from a long drawn out divorce proceeding, which tends to be extremely overwhelming for both the parties involved psychologically and as well financially.

The longer it takes to settle a divorce case, and allow the conflict to continue, and creating huge legal fees for both sides in the process.

If both parties agree during the divorce procedure, on the settlement and other pertinent matters within a reasonable amount of time, with little or no intervention from an attorney, then the final dissolution can take place pretty quickly, before the mandated waiting period is up in many of the cases.

If there are no other options, many many questions about the divorce procedure arise that need to be answered. A divorce process is usually initiated by one spouse (ie the petitioner) and served on the other (the respondent).

The petition is also filed with the clerk of court in the county where the petitioner resides at this time together with the details of the marriage.

The facts that are disclosed in the petition pertaining to the names of the husband and wife, the date and place of marriage, names of any children resulting from the union, separate or community property held by the parties, child custody, child support, spousal support, and any other issued to be addressed regarding the dissolution of the marriage.

A proper divorce procedure mandates that the respondent spouse be given suitable notice that the divorce petition has been filed, either by the petitioning spouse or process server.

The respondent then has thirty-five days to answer or file a counter-claim if require. If both parties agree on the settlement terms, a court hearing is not required and the divorce will be final.

Most of the states has a minimum waiting period (usually six months), and is not waived during proper divorce procedure, even if the marriage is dissolved before this time duration has elapsed.

Remarriage is also allowed until the waiting period is over, which commences at the date of the case filing.

Issues arising out of marriage tend to be complex and the divorce procedure itself tends to be very quite overwhelming for most of us.

Keeping physically and emotionally fit during this time will help keep the stress levels down, and the less legal involvement, the more money in the bank when the procedure is finally all over.

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