Mike and Louise had been married for almost 20 years. Their three children ranged in age from 12 to 18. They both worked full time and their incomes were approximately equal. They owned their home, had a vacation home in Florida, and a rental home that was currently unoccupied. They had a lot of other financial assets as well. They had both been heavily involved in raising their children. They had been unhappy in the marriage for quite sometime and they had attended marriage counseling for over a year. They eventually came to the realization that life was too short to stay in an unhappy marriage. It was not as if they despised each other, they just weren’t happy, and wanted to be. Louise came to me and we started the process of the “ideal” divorce.
What is the “ideal” divorce? It is a divorce where the parties make a settlement agreement before the divorce case is filed in court. We were able to come to a reasonable financial/property settlement, as well as a resolution to the issues related to the minor children in about 10 days. Then we prepared, executed and filed all of the pleadings required to initiate the case (summons, complaint, et al), along with the pleadings required to finalize the case (final order, settlement agreement, parenting plan, et al), all at the same time in the very beginning. Then we waited for 31 days to go by, which is required before the court can sign off on the final order, and on or about that 31st day we filed our motion asking the court to grant the final order without a hearing, which the court granted.
We received the judge signed final order of divorce in approximately 37 days after filing the action. Thus, from the point of hiring me, until the case was complete was 47 days. This is the ideal way to get divorced. It is not always possible to do it this way, but if there is a possibility, you should attempt the resolution of the case in this manner. It is faster, less expensive, and far less stressful.
