How Do You Start the Divorce Process?
A divorce case is a lawsuit and, in Florida, it starts with the filing of a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. The purpose of a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage is to remove the legal status of being spouses.
How you proceed with filing a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage depends on whether you have a Marital Settlement Agreement or not.
Do you have to file in court immediately?
You do not have to start the divorce process by filing in court if you are trying to settle your case together at the very beginning. You do have options for working on a settlement without having to immediately file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage in court.
If you and your spouse are already in full agreement, you can obtain the necessary paperwork you need to file for free online at FLCourts.org. This is the paperwork that has been approved and released by the Florida Supreme Court. The documents require you to answer questions by checkboxes and filling in the blanks. They were prepared specifically so you can represent yourself.
You will find there are more documents available then you will need for your circumstances. The documents are available for a number of different types of cases. You will need to determine which documents you should use by reading the instructions.
These documents are also typically available at your local Clerk of Court and/or Court Administration offices (usually in a “self-help” department). These offices, however, will usually charge you for the same documents you can get for free online. They will sometimes provide some non-legal services for you (they are not attorneys).
You and your spouse will need to complete the necessary documents and then file them with the Clerk of Court.
If you and your spouse have not yet come to full settlement terms, and don’t want to file until you have achieved that, you have to decide how to proceed. I call the following options “Cooperative Divorce”.
If you are successful in reaching a written, settlement agreement, you can proceed in the same manner as an Uncontested Divorce.
How you proceed with filing a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage depends on whether you have a Marital Settlement Agreement or not.
Do you have to file in court immediately?
You do not have to start the divorce process by filing in court if you are trying to settle your case together at the very beginning. You do have options for working on a settlement without having to immediately file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage in court.
If you and your spouse are already in full agreement, you can obtain the necessary paperwork you need to file for free online at FLCourts.org. This is the paperwork that has been approved and released by the Florida Supreme Court. The documents require you to answer questions by checkboxes and filling in the blanks. They were prepared specifically so you can represent yourself.
You will find there are more documents available then you will need for your circumstances. The documents are available for a number of different types of cases. You will need to determine which documents you should use by reading the instructions.
These documents are also typically available at your local Clerk of Court and/or Court Administration offices (usually in a “self-help” department). These offices, however, will usually charge you for the same documents you can get for free online. They will sometimes provide some non-legal services for you (they are not attorneys).
You and your spouse will need to complete the necessary documents and then file them with the Clerk of Court.
If you and your spouse have not yet come to full settlement terms, and don’t want to file until you have achieved that, you have to decide how to proceed. I call the following options “Cooperative Divorce”.
- You could review the documents together to see if a discussion leads to an agreement. (This many times has been called a “kitchen table divorce”)
- You can hire an attorney to guide you for your settlement discussions. The attorney can even negotiate for you.
- You and your spouse can both hire attorneys to negotiate for you. Those attorneys can communicate directly while you and your spouse stay on the side, or you can all four actively negotiate (the attorneys speaking directly while you and your spouse continue to discuss settlement terms as well). Typically, if all four of you are actively negotiating, you are going to do that at a “settlement conference”.
- You and your spouse could meet with a mediator. I explain mediation in greater detail at my mediation website FloridaMediationOnline. The important thing to understand is you can attend mediation without attorneys prior to filing. You can agree to hire attorneys to represent you at mediation, but that is not required to attend mediation.
If you are successful in reaching a written, settlement agreement, you can proceed in the same manner as an Uncontested Divorce.