At Humble Law Offices, we offer free consultations with our divorce attorneys for any resident who is seeking a divorce. Most likely, this will be something that you’ve never done before, so it’s perfectly natural to have several questions about the process. In this article, experienced Jamestown divorce lawyer Scott Humble answers some of the most frequently asked questions about divorce.
Frequently Asked Questions About Divorce | How Long Does It Take?
There’s really no good answer for that because it depends on a lot of different factors. It depends on how quickly the package can be put together by the client. We obviously can go and do the paperwork very quickly to file it with the County Clerk and get it back. It depends on how the defendant is going to be served. If they already have an attorney, we usually have the attorney go and serve it on the defendant. If they don’t have an attorney, sometimes they come into the office and then there’s a 20-day period before we can proceed with the divorce.
I’ve seen cases go and take 18 months if they’re heavily litigated, and maybe two years, but that is not normal. That’s kind of the exception. I would say a ballpark would be nine months for an average divorce case to settle.
Frequently Asked Questions About Divorce | What are Divorce Papers?
In a divorce under today’s statutes we are required not only to give a summons with a notice or a summons with a complaint to go and start the action to the defendant, but there are three other documents as well.
One is a QDRO notice, and that is telling you that you are not going to be able as a defendant, to be on the other party’s health insurance after the divorce. You’ve got QDRO rights, which means that you can go and get insurance from that company for six months. Usually that is cost-prohibitive. Another thing is an injunction. This is an injunction notice so that no assets in the divorce can be transferred so that everything stays status quo until the judge reviews it and makes sure that everything is divided the way that it should be divided.
The last thing is that you get notification that maintenance is now codified. The law states that there are specific calculations, as far as how the maintenance is determined. We add your income into the calculator that we have on the internet, and it tells us exactly how much that maintenance is.
Frequently Asked Questions About Divorce | What is Equitable Distribution?
Equitable means fair, and distribution means how it’s going to be split up. I think the best way to go and look at equitable distribution is that it’s a partnership between husband and wife. It doesn’t matter who is making more money, what really matters is what did they purchase together; that would be assets of the marriage. Retirement accounts are going to be split 50/50. Equity in the house is also split 50/50.
As a practical standpoint, do we want to go and get into actually selling houses, pulling the proceeds? Only if we can’t get along, that’s what the judge is going to order and that’s what we can agree to. Most of the time what happens is one party buys out the interest of the other party and keeps the house. As far as the mortgage, whoever keeps the house normally is supposed to refinance within a certain period.
Jamestown divorce lawyer Scott Humble has over 30 years of experience supporting clients at each stage of their divorce cases, and it is our pledge to help you achieve the outcome that you desire. Contact our office today to set up a free initial consultation.
