When there are no minor children as part of the marriage, an uncontested divorce is ALWAYS the best way to go since Georgia is an “equitable division” jurisdiction and the court keeps its involvement to a minimum and gives the parties lots of latitude to work out an agreement on their own. In an uncontested divorce with no minor children, the parties do not have to exchange financial affidavits nor do they have to go to mediation or a divorce class.

As part of my services, I will prepare a draft of the marital settlement agreement for you to present to your spouse based on the information that you provide to me in our initial consultation. At no additional cost, I will make any changes to the draft that might be requested by your spouse and prepare a second and final draft for both of you to sign.  Any additional drafts to the agreement will be provided at a low additional charge. Alternately if both of you will agree to sign a conflict waiver, I will personally sit down with you and your spouse to help you amicably come to a quick and fair agreement for an additional and predetermined low cost of $100.00 or less.  I also have available in my building a licensed therapist that could be arranged to meet with us as needed for an additional charge.

Once we have a final settlement agreement in place, I will finish the Complaint and the other needed documents.  A copy of the Complaint and agreement will need to be given to your spouse along with a document to sign stating receipt of them.  Your spouse will also need to sign a waiver to trial by jury and consent for the final decree to be heard after 31 days.  The filing fee in the seven counties I handle is approximately $ 82.50 and will need to be paid in full before I file the divorce by either paying me the money directly or by giving me a money order made out to the Clerk of the County Court where we will be filing the divorce.  In over 75% of the cases, the Judge will grant the divorce on a motion 31 days after it is filed and we will not have to appear in court at all.  If we are assigned to a Judge that does not grant divorces on motions, then the case will be set down on his or her first available calender 31 days after the divorce is filed and we will have to appear for about five minutes before the Judge before the divorce will be awarded.  Once the divorce is final, I will go with you to the clerk's office to get a certified copy and get one to mail to your spouse.  If you are a woman, we can petition the court to change your name as part of the proceedings and you can use your certified copy to get your driver's license and other important documents changed.