Understanding Contested Vs. Uncontested Divorces through Your Los Angeles Family Lawyer

Reaching a point in your marriage, where it seems that divorce is the only way out, can be a real challenge in itself. If you have to choose whether you want to have a contested or uncontested divorce, on top of it, it can be even more traumatizing. So before you can begin taking a call on what is right for you, you should first understand the differences between the two and how it will affect you in the long run.

Either spouse may be able to initiate the proceedings of a divorce. In this case, the other partner will be a respondent. However, if the couple decided to file a joint petition, there would be no respondent and all orders would be made only on the mutual consent of the couples. A joint divorce is often confused with an uncontested divorce, even though both are very different from each other.

Your Los Angeles family lawyer will most likely advise you to file for an uncontested divorce, which is much less messy and faster as well. This is a type of divorce where the spouses agree on all the issues of the divorce. In this kind of a divorce, the couple does not even have to appear in the court. There is no specific way of filing an uncontested divorce. If one of the spouses sends a divorce notice to the other, and the other does not respond by filing an answer to it, the divorce is automatically considered uncontested.

For the divorce to be rendered uncontested, the spouses may have to talk to each other and amicably reach a way for the dissolution of their marriage. They will also have to agree on a lot of key issues, including custody of the children, alimony and maintenance, division of property and the rest of the assets as well as other facets of the divorce.

Often, when either or both of the spouses are litigious, or unable to agree on the terms of the divorce, the case would go to the court. Such contested divorces, where either or both of the parties refuse to come to terms with any of the settlements, may continue for several years. This is why, Los Angeles family lawyers almost always advise against such divorces.

Case management in such divorces is also very difficult because the litigating couples seldom see eye to eye in any of the cases. In such cases, it becomes the responsibility of the lawyers to put an end to the warring and make the spouses see reason. It is surprising how many couples would actually respect the word and wisdom of their lawyers, when it comes to fighting a divorce case. It is also important to therefore, hire a lawyer who would be more concerned about your legal welfare than the hours they can bill you. If either of the spouses have a lawyer who is on an ego trip, and gives bad advise to their client, the case would definitely become contested, and will be difficult to deal with.