My wife is in a hurry to get the divorce as soon as the year+1 day is reached. Neither of us wants to contest anything, we’ve already settled our differences in the separation agreement. I came across mention of “Judgement for Absolute Divorce Before The Clerk”, which makes it sound possible to do all this rather quickly. Does the following seem correct?
First, whichever one of us is the plantiff files these (from the Rosen Divorce guide):
[ul]
[li] Complaint for Absolute Divorce, with notarized verification (original + 2 copies)[/li]
[li] Civil Summons (original, + 2 copies in yellow)[/li]
[li] Civil Action Cover Sheet[/li][/ul]
Then the defendant takes a copy of the summons and complaint, gets the below notarized, and then files these (from this nccourts.org doc):
[ul]
[li] Defendant’s Acceptance of Service of Process and General Appearance, with notarized verification[/li]
[li] Defendant’s Answer to Divorce Complaint and Waiver, with notarized verification. To the version in the nccourts.org doc, add a clause to also waive notice of hearings related to the complaint.[/li][/ul]
Then the plantiff can go back to the clerk again and request the Judgement for Absolute Divorce Before The Clerk. And it sounds like all of this can be taken care of in as much time as it takes to wait in line, have the defendant’s stuff notarized, then wait in line again.
Wow! very thorough!
I also have a question speaking of plaintiff…If plaintiff (wife) files for everything(pss,alimon,Ed) except divorce (because it was under a year) and then after the year & day, defendant (husband) wants to file for absolute divorce, how is it done? Does husband file a complaint & serve wife? (both have attorneys and are waiting for Financial Med) no kids in marriage. Or can His attorney just simply schedule a hearing for absolute divorce? Thanks
Yes, that seems like a correct timeline/course of events for filing a divorce complaint and obtaining a judgment from the clerk.
In response to Waterfall’s question, if there are claims for other issues pending, you should still have to file a new claim for divorce for that issue to be heard. Whether it is done through the attorneys is optional.
An update, for anyone finding this in the future: We did this, and it worked just as laid out here with only minor differences.
[ul]
[li] I got the Cover Sheet and Summons forms from the cashier (I didn’t want to buy yellow paper), and she only gave me one yellow copy instead of two. She also gave me the white copy, which they needed back later.[/li]
[li] They asked her if she had a copy of the Answer to give to me, but then they accepted the situation when she pointed at me and said “He’s right there.”[/li]
[li] I didn’t even have to request the “Judgement for Absolute Divorce Before The Clerk”, they asked if we wanted to get the divorce right away and then did it.[/li][/ul]
The whole process of getting the Complaint notarized, getting cash from the bank, filing the Complaint, getting the Acceptance of Service and Answer notarized, filing those, and then getting the Judgement took about 3 hours (that’s not including the time to prepare all the paperwork, of course).
Thank you, Rosen Law Firm, for providing this website and these resources. And thank you Ms. Putiri for your answer.
And was the total you spent $245? Or were there additional charges?
Thanks for this update!
Actually it was only $225 here. I don’t know if that’s just because she didn’t want to resume her maiden name or if the base fee varies by county. Plus it cost $0.60 to print the Complaint, Acceptance of Service, and Answer at the library, and my bank offers free notary services to its customers (and made the two photocopies of the Complaint for free) or that would have been extra too.
The fee for filing the divorce complaint is $225. The fee for filing a motion is $20. Depending upon how you get the divorce entered, you may not have to pay a motion fee.