When is a Divorced Uncontested?
by
Diane Cherry on Feb. 26, 2015
Divorce & Family Law Divorce & Family Law Divorce Divorce & Family Law Family Law
Summary: Know whether your divorce is contested or uncontested before you hire an attorney. If you and your spouse do not agree on every issue, including ihe division of assets, amount and length of alimony and child support, your divorce is contested and you need to make sure you hire the right attorney.
Everyone knows divorces can be contested or uncontested.
If husband and wife are in agreement that they want to be divorced, is it uncontested? Not unless they can agree on 100% of the issues.
The mere fact that you agree on getting a divorce doesn't make your divorce uncontested. If you do not agree on everything from property division to child support to alimony and attorney's fees to visitation and parenting time, you do not qualify for an uncontested divorce.
In layman's terms, it's better to think of an uncontested divorce as a “quickie divorce.” You both want to dispense with the ordinary formalities of litigation and rush into a divorce.
Uncontested divorces work best for recently married and no or low asset and debt couples. If you have a lot of assets, debt or tax liabilities, an uncontested divorce may indeed be quick but it may leave you unprotected.
What if you only disagree on one or two issues? Good question. In that case, you still do not qualify for an uncontested divorce because you have to work out those issues and it may take hours, days, weeks or months to agree on a single issue.
No lawyer can afford to work with you toward a resolution of any issues in a divorce without charging you for his or her time, which is why they put limits on the number of changes they will make to an uncontested settlement agreement before it is considered contested.
And a “quickie divorce” is exactly that: you don't get any investigation, analysis, tips, planning or advice on what assets and debts you should be seeking a division of, confirmation that you are not overlooking any assets or discussion and strategies for reducing the risk of future tax or other liabilities arising after the divorce is finalized.
So before you ask for an uncontested divorce, think about whether you want to bypass all formalities and go the quickie route or whether you want something more than that.
For more information, join the discussion at the Georgia Divorce Network.
