Divorce and family cases can be resolved through a fully contested trial or can be fully resolved with the bare minimum of court involvement. Whether fully contested or completely agreed upon, a divorce or family case will have to go through a similar series of steps from start to finish. While divorce cases have some additional financial issues to address, litigated family cases generally follow the same basic pattern.
The first step is deciding whether you're going to hire a lawyer, and if so, picking that lawyer. That is a topic worthy of a separate discussion, which you can find here. Moving beyond that, the first thing to do is to gather information. Whether you're representing yourself, or having an attorney represent you, you have to know what issues have to be addressed in your case. In a unconstested financial case, this could be as simple as writing down a list of accounts, assets, and debts, and collecting the most recent statements for each item. In a contested case, this usually takes place through the formal discovery process.
Discovery is the formal information exchange process for our court system. Contrary to what you might see on television, our legal system is set up so that there are no surprise witnesses or shocking documents discovered at the last minute. Instead, the parties exchange written requests for documentation or written questions to identify the issues that will need to be addressed.
Besides gathering financial information, part of the information gathering process should identify whether or not child custody, or what is now called parenting responsibility, is going to be an issue in your case. If you have minor children, your divorce or parentage judgment must include a parenting plan. Parenting plans are detailed documents that set up the schedule the parents are going to follow with the children, as well as rules relating to how they make decisions for the children. During the information exchange process, you will need to start addressing these questions. Needless to say, addressing issues of child custody is a big topic, and you can look here for a detailed discussion of those issues.
Once you've got the information you need, it's time to find out if the case can be settled. If your case is uncontested, this might be as easy as a sit down discussion with the other party to address all of the issues. In a contested case, the parties will typically exchange formal settlement proposals, either in letter form or in the form of draft judgments. If the parties are able to reach an agreement, the final documents will be prepared and approved, and the case will be scheduled for an uncontested hearing. In an uncontested hearing, generally just the party who is petitioning for the divorce will testify and confirm to the judge that the final documents represent the parties agreement and that they are agreeable to those documents becoming finalized.
If your case cannot be settled, the judge will schedule your case for a final trial. In most jurisdictions, final trial settings are usually set at least 45 days in the future. There will often be some sort of formal pretrial memorandum or affidavit which sets for the issues in your case.
At trial, each party will be able to present witnesses and documentation to support their requested outcome. The judge will hear the evidence, and then either issue a ruling orally at the conclusion of the evidence or will take the case under advisement, which means that they want to think about and carefully set forth their decision in written form. In most cases, your case ends with the entry of a divorce or parentage judgment.
While anyone can theoretically represent themselves in their divorce or family case, the wide variety of potential issues and the complexity of these issues make it a challenge for non-lawyers to effectively advocate on their own behalf. In addition, there are a variety of procedural rules both before and during a trial that can trip up the unwary non-lawyer. And, if you believe there is any chance you might want to appeal an adverse decision, it is that much more important to make sure that the record is preserved appropriately, so that your appeal can be decided on the merits. Because of all this, you should strongly consider obtaining the advice of an experienced family law attorney in your divorce or family matter. Contact us online or by calling 217-641-2807.