Hello. I am the defendant and have been served with a complaint for Absolute Divorce. As I understand it, there is no need for me to answer the complaint or to attend the subsequent hearing. We have a signed/notarized Separation Agreement which states that it will be incorporated into a divorce decree. There is nothing on the complaint other than a listing of the standard qualifying information. My question is, is there anything that I need to do? As I understand it I don’t need to answer or appear so can I just do nothing and wait for the judge to grant the absolute divorce? The only thing that gave me pause was the last line in the complaint which stated “…Plaintif and Defendant be granted an absolute divorce from each other, and for such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper.”. Is that just standard language or is there a chance they could try to petition the judge (re: other and further relief) to amend something in the agreement or otherwise do something that would be harmful to me?
You are correct in that you don’t have to file an answer to a divorce complaint if you agree with everything contained in the complaint. If you want the separation agreement to be incorporated into the divorce decree, you may want to file an answer so that you can reiterate this to the court. You may also want to be present at the court date for the entry of divorce to confirm that the decree includes the incorporation language.
The request to the court for “such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper” is standard language.