Uncontested Divorce – no minor children

When there are no minor children as part of the marriage, uncontested divorce is ALWAYS the best way to go since Georgia is an “equitable division” jurisdiction and the court keeps its involvement to a minimum and gives the parties a lot of latitude to work out an agreement on their own. Fighting over assets and support in Georgia divorce cases only benefits the lawyers since when it is all said in done and all your money has gone to pay your legal fees, you still end up with the same agreement you and spouse could have worked out on your own.  

Besides the lower cost of an uncontested divorce, there are some other important reasons to really make a good faith effort to reach an agreement with your spouse in cases with out minor children so you can file the divorce as uncontested:

• Privacy Reasons.  In uncontested cases with out minor children where you have reached an agreement and file the divorce as uncontested, neither of you have to file the Georgia Domestic Financial Affidavit. Not only is this Affidavit very time consuming to complete, it is also public record and any interested (or just plain nosey) person can view this document and see all your personal financial information including your two last pay stubs from your current employer.  In cases where the parties have reached an agreement regarding assets and any spousal support it is not necessary for them to formally file this information with the court since part of the agreement is waiving of formal discovery of assets by both parties.

• No Strangers Telling You What to Do.  If you and your spouse are able to reach an agreement on you own, or with the help of counsel like myself, then there is no reason for costly court ordered mediation where a stranger that you have never met before charges you $100 - $300 an hour to tell you what he or she thinks you should do regarding the most import decisions of your life.

• Super Fast and No Court.  If you and your spouse are able to reach an agreement prior to the filing of the divorce petition then we can also file a waiver of an Evidentiary Hearing and have the Judge sign the final decree without anyone having to go to court in as little 31 days from the date that the paper work is filed with the Clerk of Court.  No one likes to go to court and stand in front of the Judge.  I have been to court HUNDREDS of times and I still get butterflies every single time I am there.  In 99% of all uncontested cases in Georgia where the Plaintiff is represented by an attorney the Judge will agree to grant the divorce based on the word of the attorney that the agreement is complete and correct and he or she will then make the ruling based strictly on the filed paper work and then send that signed ruling to the attorney for filing.