Get on the path to results today. child custody attorney divorce lawyer marriage divorce lawyer free consultation Hartland
Get on the path to results today. child custody attorney divorce lawyer marriage divorce lawyer free consultation Hartland
You hear it all the time we have an uncontested divorce. Let me tell you something, an uncontested divorce is very rare. If you agreed to everything you probably would not be getting divorced. What is a contested divorce? A contested divorce can mean a lot of things. It is important that you understand what a marriage is and what a divorce is. A marriage is actually a contract. It is the only contract I know of where the parties cannot freely agree to resolve or nullify the contract on a hand shake or other verbal agreement. It is the only contract that the courts must issue an order dissolving the marriage. And in order to do that there must be a judgement of divorce entered by the court and it must be signed by the judge. an uncontested divorce is where the parties have agreed to everything usually before or shortly after the divorce is filed and they reduce it to a judgement of divorce and sign it and give it to the judge to sign and presto you are divorced.
A contested divorce is where there are issues and those issues need to be litigated. That means a hearing is held and someone else will decide how the contested issues are to be settled. That someone else can be any number of players along the journey of getting divorced. It can be a friends of the court referee, a mediator, an arbitrator, or a judge. Sometimes all of the above.
Common issues that are usually contested are spousal support or alimony, child support, child custody, parenting time, real estate settlement, property settlement including debts, 401k or other retirements and pretty much anything the parties end up disagreeing about at the end of the day. The courts take a fair and equitable stance on property division. Child support is ruled by the child support guidelines, however dollar amounts and overnights are usually a hotly contested issue. Alimony has a lot of gray area that can be very contested. https://divorceattorney-michigan.com/alimony%2F-spousal-support . Of course, if the parties go through the whole process and can't come to an agreement then the case proceeds to trial. The basic process is the case gets filed and if children are involved then there is usually a Friends of the Court referee hearing right away to get temporary orders in place for the children. Then there may be mediation. https://divorceattorney-michigan.com/mediation. Sometimes in a highly contested divorce there could be mediation more then once. And along the way there are probably going to be motion filed and sometimes deposition. Although deposition are a part of discovery sometimes things come out at these kinds of procedures that make a party chose to settle. But, after all of this if the parties these cannot agree then there will be a trial. Divorce trials are very expensive. There is a lot of document management and preparation for the attorney. Probably more than a criminal trial. And divorce trials are emotional on everybody. The parties dirty laundry is exposed to the world at trail. Sometimes this has to be done. But usually a good mediator can get thing wrapped up without going to trial.