• Divorce Overview
• Property Division
• Spousal Maintenance
• Child Support
• Custody & Parenting Time

• Home
• About
• The Team
  • Chris Johnson
  • Erin Turner
  • Steven Sicheneder
  • Karolina Hoerl
  • Karla Lien
  • Krystal Lilyquist
• Services
  • Family Law
  • Litigation
  • Real Estate
  • Business
  • Dispute Resolution
• Resources

DIVORCE OVERVIEW

Going through a divorce can be an incredibly stressful experience. Our goal is to help make the process as manageable as possible for our clients. Having some general information about going through the process can help eliminate some of the anxiety people commonly feel.

PROCEDURE

Service of Summons and Petition
A divorce action is started when a party (husband or wife) is served with a Summons and Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. The Petition for Dissolution of Marriage lists the basic facts of the case.

Answer and Counter-Petition
A party who is served with the Summons and Petition will have 30 days in which to provide an Answer and Counter-Petition in response to the Petition. This is the party’s opportunity to state the facts of the case from his or her perspective.

Discovery
After the case has been officially started through the Petition and Answer process, then commonly we will move to the investigation phase of the case. Each party involved in a divorce proceeding is required to make a full and accurate disclosure of each of his or her assets and debts. During discovery, each party has the opportunity to request information from the other regarding information relevant to the divorce, including financial information and information relating to the children.

Motions for Temporary Relief
Parties need to be able to conduct their lives during the time that the divorce proceeding is in process. However, parties often have different views as to how best to go on with life during a divorce. Who should have custody of the children during the proceeding?  What should the parenting time schedule be? How much child support should be paid during this time? Should one party be required to pay the other temporary spousal maintenance (formerly known as alimony)?  When people cannot agree on these and other issues on a temporary basis, we make a Motion for Temporary Relief to the Court. 

This hearing is held without anyone testifying in Court. Instead, we submit our clients’ position in writing to the Judge, and then we attend the hearing and make an oral argument about each of the issues. The Judge then will issue an Order, and the parties are required to follow whatever that Order states.

Mediation
After we have collected all of the information that we need to have a full understanding of each of the issues, we often proceed to mediation. A mediator is a specially trained third party, often an attorney, whose job is to help parties come to an agreement on each of the issues that need to be resolved. Many times the parties will be in separate rooms from one another during this process, and the mediator goes back and forth between those rooms helping the parties negotiate with one another. Choosing an effective mediator is very important, and we work closely with numerous experienced and effective people in this role. 

Trial
If we are unable to resolve the issues in the case, we proceed to trial to present the case to the Judge. Trial will involve presenting evidence such as testimony by friends, family, appraisers, financial experts, custody and parenting time experts, among others. It will involve introducing financial documents to the Judge to show the financial circumstances of the parties. After trial, the Judge requires post-trial submissions by the attorneys that serve to sum up the case and argue that our perspective is the most appropriate from which to view the facts. After trial, the Judge will issue an Order that resolves each of the outstanding issues in the case.