well first it does not need to be a
mutual decision it only takes one spouse
to want to initiate the divorce process
the initiating spouse would file what’s
called the divorce petition which would
give a case number and put it before the
court and in that petition they would
want to illustrate if they’re seeking
spousal support if they want spousal
support terminated if they want the
other side to contribute to their
attorney fees if they want joint or sole
physical and legal custody if they have
children and it won’t create a
substantive hearing but it will get a
case number and then put the proceeding
within the the court system and then the
respondent the person who didn’t file
that initial petition will have 30 days
to respond to the petition
and basically respond to every
everything requested by the petitioner
in the initial uh pleading so they would
say
if they do not want to pay spell support
or if they want spousal support if they
think either party should contribute to
their own attorney fees or they
shouldn’t have to pay the other party’s
fees or what they want for custody when
the court has all of that information
there are certain procedures that go
into place the parties will need to
exchange disclosures on the financial
side of the case which is basically two
forms that set forth all of their income
all of their expenses all of their
assets and all of those debts and those
forms will help the parties have a full
and comprehensive understanding of what
exists and then there are various legal
and factual arguments that can be made
if it
if a certain item of property should be
divided in half if it should belong just
to one spouse if one spouse should get a
certain amount of spousal support or
child support if there are children
involved and but often those disclosures
aren’t sufficient in a very contested or
divorce that involves a lot of assets
property income things of that sort in
which case the discovery process would
involve lawyers or parties if they’re
representing themselves
initiating additional requests for
information and documents that are far
more
extensive than the disclosures would
require and then after
that process eventually on the financial
side
the parties would be in a position to
have enough information including if
they wanted to take depositions and
things of that sort to proceed to trial
or to engage in meaningful settlement
discussions most cases settle often with
the assistance of a mediator or a
private judge
before trial occurs but some cases
unfortunately proceed all the way to
trial generally that could take anywhere
from a year to two or three years or
even more to conclude if the parties
aren’t able to resolve it in settlement
on the custody side of things
it’s not as formal a procedure with
disclosures of things of that nature but
if the parties can’t work out a way to
divide custody of their children amongst
themselves or with the assistance of
lawyers or mediators one party during
the case could file a request for order
of the court seeking a certain custody
plan the other party can respond to that
a judge would decide that preliminarily
not a final custody order but just how
it should be navigated during the case
now often that sets the status quo and
that makes it kind of difficult to
deviate from if things are working out
well but eventually
the parties could have a trial on the
issue of custody one party can argue to
keep it the way it is or make minor
modifications one party can argue to
completely change it and eventually
that matter of custody would be resolved
at a final trial or same process with
settlement if the parties can work it
out beforehand