Most experts in family law highly recommend that you hire an attorney to help you prepare and file your complaint. Your complaint sets the tone for the entire divorce process. If you miss important details or fail to provide adequate reasons for initiating a divorce, you will hurt your chances of achieving your financial goals and the outcome you want for your family. Your complaint also establishes the proper jurisdiction and venue for your divorce and includes information about your marriage regarding:.
When you assemble the information needed for your complaint, your attorney will also discuss strategy with you and help you with the often tedious paperwork involved with filing for a divorce. How to Serve Divorce Papers in Georgia As stated above, serving your forms to your spouse is an important part of the process of filing for divorce.
If your spouse agrees to it, they or their attorney can accept service of your complaint. They will need to give you a signed and notarized Acceptance of Service as proof that this has taken place. Georgia also allows for service of an Acceptance of Service via email.
As an alternative, you can also serve your spouse via a sheriff or special process server. Once your spouse has been served by the process server, the process server will submit a notification to your home court stating that your spouse received the filing. Sometimes, especially in divorces based on desertion, you may need to serve your spouse via publication in a local newspaper.
First, you will need to sign an affidavit stating that you cannot locate your spouse. After your affidavit is accepted by the court, the court clerk will publish a notice of your case four times over 60 days in a local newspaper. The cost of publication is your responsibility.
If you have received a Complaint of Divorce, you will need to respond via a document containing two components: your Answer and your Counterclaim. You can either admit or deny any claim made or admit to and deny the entire thing. You can also respond by saying you do not have enough information from the Petitioner to answer either way. The second component of your response, the Counterclaim, is where you tell your side of things with regards to the divorce and declare what you are asking for in terms of assets, child support and custody, etc.
You can also put forth your own grounds for divorce. If you and your spouse decide to settle, your terms can vary from those defined in your Counterclaim. You can also amend your Counterclaim at a later date, if you wish to change your requests. Filing your response is important for a number of reasons. One of the most important is that it protects against the possibility of a default judgment being issued against you.
Default judgments typically occur when the respondent does not file a response or attend scheduled hearings and often results in the petitioner getting what they asked for. According to Georgia law, a respondent has 30 days after receiving a Complaint of Divorce to respond. If that respondent does not file an Answer and Counterclaim or any defensive pleadings within that 30 days, the respondent technically waives all further notices with regards to the case.
This means the respondent will receive no communications regarding the time and date of the trial and will not be made aware of any decision or entry of judgment.
You may ask the assigned judge for a hearing to be set as soon as 46 days after the respondent was served. There are some judges who may still insist that the respondent received notice. The respondent may also still submit defensive pleadings at any time before the judge hands down a final judgment. As a matter of public policy, Georgia errs on the side of continuing a marriage and, therefore, avoids handing down default judgments in divorce actions.
The Discovery phase of your divorce can be one of its most intense times. During the Discovery phase, you must disclose many personal facts about your life and finances. Knowing what is coming ahead of time can streamline the process for you. In the following sections, we will walk you through the logistics of discovery in Georgia, including:. Going through a divorce trial is not your only option when considering divorce in Georgia.
Spouses also have the option of going with different types of alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration, and settlement conferences. Each of these has their own set of advantages.
The following sections will look at each in detail to help you decide whether or not alternative dispute resolution is the right choice for you. In mediation, you and your spouse meet with a mediator to discuss the issues on which you can come to agreement before continuing the divorce process.
This essential component of the divorce process can reduce the costs and strain of a divorce, and many attorneys recommend using mediation. To learn more about the mediation process for divorce in Georgia, visit our detailed mediation page. An alternative to the divorce process that many couples consider is collaborative law. Collaborative law is a process by which the parties involved in a divorce work with an array of professionals to address the central questions of their divorce without going to court.
At the start of the collaborative law process, the spouses involved agree to share all information pertinent to the process, including financial assets and liabilities. The spouses also agree to do their best to avoid court and come to an agreement. Your lawyer is an essential part of the process, protecting your rights and ensuring that important issues such as child custody are addressed correctly.
The collaborative law process ends with a signed settlement and divorce agreement, which is then submitted for approval to the courts. Arbitration is another alternative to court that divorcing spouses in Georgia can consider. In arbitration, an arbitrator or a panel composed of several arbitrators reviews a summary of the evidence in a divorce case and renders a judgment based on these facts. Arbitration is similar to mediation in the sense that they are both alternative dispute resolution methods for settling a divorce.
The difference is that in mediation the parties decide their own terms, whereas in arbitration all final decisions are left to the arbitrator or arbitrators. Spouses considering divorce in Georgia can also use another form of alternative dispute resolution known as a settlement conference.
A settlement conference comes in two forms: a judicially hosted settlement conference and an informal settlement conference. Both types of conferences are similar to mediation in that both parties come together to make decisions about their divorce. In a judicially hosted settlement conference, this process is overseen, however, by a senior judge, or experienced practicing attorneys. Both parties present their positions to the judge or attorney; who, in turn, might express opinions on certain points or provide guidance.
No one is under obligation to accept any of the recommendations. If either party is not satisfied with the results of a judicially hosted settlement conference, they can decide to go forward with a trial.
In some cases, negotiations during the settlement conference can result in a partial settlement that can serve as a framework moving forward. In an informal settlement conference, the parties meet together with their attorneys to discuss the issues at the heart of the divorce without the help of a neutral third party. There are no rules when it comes to an informal settlement conference; if the parties involved cannot come to an agreement, they are under no obligation to draft a settlement.
A late case evaluation is an opportunity to settle a case that typically occurs at the behest of the judge, if that presiding judge believes a settlement is possible. A late case evaluation can be scheduled any time after the discovery process is finished, but is often scheduled at the Day Status Conference. In a late case evaluation, a neutral third party known as a late case evaluator listens to the positions of each spouse.
The evaluator then makes a recommendation concerning settlement. This recommendation is non-binding. Neutral late case evaluators are often family law attorneys, retired judges, or Superior Court judges not currently associated with the case. Both parties can come to an agreement on who the late case evaluator will be; if there is no agreement, the court can assign one. When alternatives to trial have not worked, spouses will need to prepare for going to trial in their divorce.
This can be a long and complex process. Understanding what is to come can help you prepare logistically and emotionally for what is to come. The protocols for scheduling a trial vary from county to county in Georgia.
In some counties, you will be notified of a specific date for the trials, while in others your case will be placed in a calendar with other domestic relations cases. In the former scenario, your trial will happen on the provided date unless some special circumstance occurs and forces a date change. In the latter, you show up on the assigned date and wait for your case to be called.
This can mean that you are heard on that day; however, if the docket is full, you may have to wait until the next day. I nformation about filing a divorce in Atlanta. Georgia Court approved divorce forms The local court in Atlanta will only accept divorce forms that adhere to the Georgia State laws.
Settlement Agreement in Atlanta, Georgia Many people want to include a marital separation agreement, also known as a settlement agreement, to handle the distribution of your marital assets and debts, handle health insurance issues, and many other items.
Child custody, support and visitation If you have minor children when you file a divorce in Georgia, your divorce forms are required to handle the issues regarding the custody and support of those children. Property and debt settlement If you have marital property and debt that you need to distribute in the divorce documents, we will include the division in the forms we prepare for you. Marriage Arbitration and Mediation If you have certain issues in your divorce that you cannot resolve with your spouse, marriage mediation and arbitration services are available.
Divorce Forms specific to the Court in Atlanta Did you know that divorce forms in one city may be different from the next city over.
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Helpful Tips: Filing with the Court Your divorce forms will come with full step-by-step instructions on filing your divorce with the court, but we wanted to provide you with a little understanding of the process of filing a divorce in Atlanta Georgia Review and sign your divorce forms : Your first step will be to review the documents we have prepared for you and sign them where indicated on the forms.
The divorce package will include several documents that you will need for filing, such as the Petition for Divorce or Complaint for Divorce , the divorce cover-sheet, the Summons, and many other divorce forms. File with the court in Atlanta: After the divorce forms have been signed, then they will be filed with the court. This starts the divorce process. Serve your spouse or have your spouse sign an acceptance of service: The next step is that your spouse will be served, or he signs an acceptance of service.
If you are your spouse are in agreement, then we will provide a document that your spouse will sign so that he or she doesn't have to be served by the Sheriff. If your spouse won't sign, or your spouse's whereabouts are unknown, then your spouse will be served by the sheriff, or when the spouse's whereabouts are unknown, they are served by publication.
Default and setting a final hearing date: The court will have a final hearing date where you pick up your Divorce Decree or Judgment of Divorce. This is the document that you keep with you to prove that your divorce has been finalized by the Court in Atlanta.
We will let you know the specific steps for the divorce that will pertain to your situation. This is a short description of the divorce process. Our support department will walk you through the steps of completing your divorce. Smart Divorce takes the trouble out of filing your divorce There are many different situations that our customers have. Atlanta Divorce Forms You can now get a divorce without having to pay thousands to a local divorce lawyer.
Child Custody and Support Documents Our divorce documents include a separation agreement and all the forms required for child custody, child support and property division. Atlanta Divorce Specialists Each divorce form is prepared by an experienced Atlanta divorce specialists.
Live Support Chat. Select: Wife Husband. What is your email address? Re-enter your Email. What is your middle name? Create a password. What is your legal last name? Re-enter password. See if you Qualify Do you know the location of your spouse? Yes No. Can you and your spouse agree to the division of property, debts and all child related issues?
Select service Divorce Legal Separation Annulment. Looking for Divorce in Atlanta? We can help you with the whole Atlanta City Divorce process. You can freely research the divorce court records in Atlanta.
Each court of Atlanta has forms for different cases. The court filing fee may vary depending on your case. In Atlanta, the terms of the divorce depend on the case complexity. The Atlanta divorce process may differ in most of the cases.
File for divorce in Atlanta City with Online Divorce. File for divorce with an attorney. File for divorce with. File for divorce with other sites. Divorce Online in Atlanta, Georgia. Representing your interests before the court on your own pro se legal representation is technically allowed in Atlanta, Georgia. However, when we dive deep into the process, filing for divorce often turns out to be more complicated than it seemed. There are numerous court requirements and terms in every county and city, and these terms may differ slightly from statewide rules.
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