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Yes, Your Florida Uncontested Divorce Really Can Begin with a Settlement Before Filing the Divorce Case

By Janet Langjahr

Many people are baffled by the divorce process. At their initial consultation, some people question – and even obsess – over the sequence and timeline of the legal steps in the Florida divorce process.

But the truth is, there’s more than one possible sequence of legal events on the road to a Florida divorce, even a Florida uncontested divorce. For example, a settlement may be reached at any point in time before a final judgment is rendered after a divorce trial. And a settlement is what converts a divorce into an uncontested divorce.

Of course, if settlement is in the cards, settling very late in the process is not optimal for the spouses. They would save considerable money and upset if they reached their settlement much earlier in the divorce process.

How early?

It always surprises people to learn that there is absolutely no reason why spouses can’t reach a settlement before they even officially start their formal Florida divorce case. That is one of the hallmarks of one approach to a Florida uncontested divorce, called collaborative divorce.

The Achilles’ heel of the trendy collaborative divorce approach, however, is that both parties must be in synch with one another in agreeing on having a divorce, being ready to sit down at a negotiating table and being committed to settling before a divorce case is filed.

Unfortunately, both spouses aren’t always able to get on the same page in those respects that soon. Some parties need to be served – and sometimes even to experience a certain amount of litigation – before they are ready to accept the fact of the divorce, let alone deal with what must be dealt with.

But until a divorce case is filed, one spouse cannot force the other spouse to sit down at the negotiating table. It can be a long wait until the other spouse sees the light.

Every couple is unique and therefore every divorce is unique. Rigid approaches, strict methodologies and trendy labels don’t necessarily fit.

If and when both spouses become receptive and ready for it, any divorce can become a Florida uncontested divorce. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a costly or bitter process.

Nor do collaborative divorce evangelists have a monopoly on pursuing settlement prior to filing. And non-collaborative Florida uncontested divorces can save spouses as much – if not more – money than Florida collaborative divorces.

It is important to understand the dynamics of your divorce before adopting any particular approach to divorce.

Read more in this FOX TV 5 news article: Collaborative Divorce Can Save Money.

Full post as published by Florida Divorce - Child Custody - Domestic Abuse Law on September 19, 2009 (boomark / email).