so divorce in in a typical you know what

I call the the common understanding of

divorce in Illinois is someone files a

petition for dissolution of marriage

people say I’m filing I’m filing divorce

I’m filing my papers that’s that

petition for dissolution of marriage

it’s a two or three page document you

file it with the court that’s going to

give you a case number assign you a

courtroom assign you a judge and then

you’ll have a process server which is

like uh you know the sheriff or someone

who serves somebody you have them go and

serve the other party they hand them

their papers they’ve officially been

served and that person that has 30 30

days to respond to the summons meaning

um file an appearance or to hire an

attorney okay that’s how a traditional

divorce starts after that you then have

What’s called the discovery process

which is a fancy word for an exchange of

financial documents this is usually

where a divorce can get pretty bogged

down and can feel you know a little

arduous for the client because you know

reality if it is contested at all it is

important

um and ethically required to exchange

financial information to make sure you

have that information before you

finalize a divorce

then you have different things that can

happen in court with motions and

hearings and of the like the other way

that we go about divorce which I highly

recommend if possible is what we like to

call Cooperative divorce and that’s

where you know someone comes to me and

they say look you know me and my spouse

we want to get a divorce we’ve been

married seven years or however many

years we don’t want to fight we’re in

agreement we’re amicable we just want to

go our separate ways this is what we’ve

agreed upon and in that scenario you

know I’m basically

I wait to file in court I’m not starting

that whole process I just said until

we’re already in full agreement and so

that way I work with you know my client

and their spouse to come up with What’s

called the marital settlement agreement

and that is the document you use to get

divorced and if you get to a point where

you can have that agreed upon and signed

then once I file for that petition for

dissolution of marriage get assigned a

courtroom and a case number I then just

go right in and ask for what’s called a

prove up which is what uh the

finalization of a divorce is called the

prove up we fill out a few of the prove

up uh package documents we go in and

finalize the divorce I mean if people

are in agreement I can get you people

say how long is a divorce well it’s as

soon as you’re in agreement as soon as

you’re in agreement I can have you

divorce within a couple of weeks not a

problem you know obviously that process

is way less expensive you know way less

stressful

um and both people usually agree to

waive the discovery process or at least

do a much more minimal Discovery process

as opposed to five years of every

account they’ve ever had and every

mortgage or car they’ve ever had they do

what we call Financial disclosure which

is just a financial affidavit

um that’s basically disclosing their

assets and debts they sign it under oath

and we use that and we finish it up