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Ways to declare divorce is a process started by filing with the court that is called a Complaint or a Petition, relying on the state where you live. Some states call the procedure a divorce, and some call it a dissolution of marriage. A copy of the Complaint is served on your spouse, generally by the constable's workplace or process server. This may not be essential in many cases, where you and your spouse are in agreement. Your spouse will be provided a specific number of days to react to the Complaint. How the case follows there will rely on how your spouse reacts. You and your spouse might reach an agreement, your spouse may file an action, or may not respond at all. Other files might need to be submitted, primarily financial declarations. Things can end up being quite complex, with many files being submitted, and several official court hearings.

There are both fixed expenses and variable divorce expenses. The fixed expenses are filing fees paid to the court, and fees paid to have legal documents served on your spouse. These costs differ from state to state. Variable costs include fees for file preparation and legal representation by an attorney. The attorney's charges can differ profoundly, depending upon the intricacy of the case, and the degree to which any problems are objected to. Extra expenses may also come into play if the court orders mediation of disputed concerns, or if it ends up being essential to employ a financial analyst due to intricate residential or commercial property issues.

If you don't know the whereabouts of your spouse, you may still get a divorce. You will have to take particular actions to attempt to locate your spouse, and to notify him or her that you have applied for divorce. Usually, trying to find your spouse will involve things like checking the telephone listing where you live and where your spouse is last understood to have lived, asking good friends and family members if they understand where your spouse might be, checking with the post office where she or he last lived to see if there is a forwarding address, examining property records to see if he or she owns property, contacting state records for motorist's license or vehicle registrations, and checking with the last recognized employer or landlord. If you still can't locate your spouse, there is a process called service by publication, where you get the court's approval to publish a notice of the divorce in a newspaper. Once this is done, you may proceed with the divorce case. You will have the ability to get divorced and be granted custody of any children; however, you may not be able to get full property division, alimony or child support till your spouse is personally served with court documents.

Even for an uncontested or simplified divorce, you will have to go to some type of hearing prior to seeing a judge. This may remain in the judge's chambers or in a courtroom. You may just be needed to participate in, or both you and your spouse may be needed to participate in. You might need to bring a witness to affirm that you fulfill the residency requirement. Normally, for a case where you and your spouse have signed a settlement agreement, the hearing will take less than Thirty Minutes, and will be mainly for the function of satisfying the judge that all of the documentation is in order, that required notifications have actually been given, and that any residency requirement has been accepted.

In many cases you'll need to engage an attorney in order to satisfactorily protect your interests and fight for everything you deserve. Please consider taking great advantage of the free personal injury consultations offered by Deborah Besserman, Granite City and Madison County, IL personal injury lawyer, as a way to determine whether we can be of help to you.