A divorce is just like any other lawsuit. There’s a Plaintiff, a Defendant, and a presiding Judge (except that we call them Petitioners and Respondents in a divorce – not Plaintiffs and Defendants). As with other civil lawsuits, a filing fee is required to file the case with the Court. Once the case is filed, a Judge will be assigned to the case, and your first court date will get set.
There is also a wide range of law that governs divorces that can be found both in statutory and case law. Judges follow these statutes and cases and issue orders that have the force and effect of law. This is serious stuff.
It is important that you understand this when you make the decision to file for divorce. Occasionally, people will file for divorce with no real intention of going through with it. Sometimes they do it as a knee-jerk reaction to a big fight. They do it more as a wake-up-call to their spouse. They are upset with their spouse for some reason. They think that if they start the divorce process, their spouse will do what they wanted them to do in the first place, and then they can just drop the divorce.
I don’t recommend this. The legal path of a divorce assumes that the end result will be a divorce. There is no requirement that you go to marital counseling. If/when you attend mediation, the goal is to mediate the dissolution of your marriage, and not to find a way to reconcile.
Not everyone understands this. The Court has no desire to divorce people who do not want to be divorced. Good faith reconciliation can happen, and the Court would of course encourage that if that’s what both spouses want. The Court will not be upset with you if you decide to reconcile. But don’t treat divorce as a game, or as a tool to get what you want in your marriage.
Contact Beyer & Simonson
If you are facing divorce and any of the divorce-related issues such as spousal maintenance, child support, child custody, property division, or domestic abuse matters, you need our experienced Minneapolis divorce attorneys to help you. Contact Beyer & Simonson in Edina, Minnesota today at (952) 303-6007.