What is the divorce process for marriages without children? The beginning process will be a filing with the court a petition for dissolution of a marriage without children. The next step after the filing of the petition for dissolution will be service of the petition on the other party, on your spouse, or a waiver of service by your spouse. Then, following that will be an exchange financial documentation. Everyone will get to know what everybody else’s financial position is, and what the marriage assets and debts are. Following the disclosures of these financial documents, a court will hold a status conference where the court will do a temperature check to determine how things are going, are there immediate issues that need to be addressed and setting the case for hearing if necessary.
The major areas that the court will address in a divorce without children are the allocation of assets and debts. Anything that is a marital debt versus a separate property debt or asset will be analyzed by the court and then divided and then maintenance will be the other aspect that the court will address in a divorce without children. If there are not any children, the court can go ahead and enter a decree, or the final order, divorcing you from your spouse without having to go to court as long as all the paperwork and the parties have come to an agreement. If the parties are unable to come to an agreement in a divorce, the court will have a trial of the issues and will equitably divide the assets and debts between the two parties.
