Divorce for Men

Each case will vary depending on the complexity of the issues, the relationship of the people and the court’s ability to schedule the matter expeditiously.  Once I have a sense of your issues, I can do my best to give you a range but you must understand that it could end up being much more or less than I an estimating because there are so many unknowns.

Once the case is filed, the average case can last anywhere from four (4) to eighteen (18) months.

The amount of times you will have to go to court on each divorce case will vary depending on the nature of the case and the issues. However, on average, you will have between five (5) and ten (10) court appearances. They will include two or more case management conferences, one early settlement panel hearing, one intensive settlement conference, and either a final hearing or a trial date. Some cases may have additional case management conferences and a trial that can last over multiple days or weeks.

There are provisions in the law to allow you to seek to have your spouse pay your legal fees. There are a number of factors that the court must look to but most commonly they look and rely heavily upon discrepancy in income and good or bad faith positions throughout the litigation.

However, I generally advise clients not to expect it because judges don’t grant fees unless it is to enforce an agreement and, even then, they don’t usually award a lot.

There are many different factors that go into an alimony determination. The court will first look to the first four main factors which include length of the marriage, lifestyle of the marriage, the higher earning spouse’s ability to pay and the lower earning spouse’s ability to support his or herself. The law indicates, absent extraordinary circumstances, alimony cannot last longer than the marriage for a marriage 20 years or less.

Child support is calculated by the use of the Child Support Guidelines. It is an income based approach that will calculate child support based on the income of both parties and add certain adjustments for parenting time schedules, medical and health insurance costs and certain other extraordinary or recurring expenses.

In the event that your spouse loses his or her job and is paying support, they will usually have to wait a couple of months before being able to file for a modification of support. That modification application must show a material and substantial change in circumstances and one that they cannot remedy.

If the other party does not file an answer to your divorce complaint, after the expiration of 35 days, you can file an entry to default which is a legal pleading that closes the ability for the other person to file an answer. Following the entry of default, you will forward to the court a proposed final judgment of divorce indicating the relief you want the court to grant at the final hearing and requesting a hearing be set. You should receive a final hearing usually a month or so after the entry of default but you must have it scheduled at least 20 days after you mailed the other party your proposed final judgment of divorce which you also sent to the court.

Temporary support is based on the court’s desire to preserve the status quo. In the event that you and your spouse have either a discrepancy in income, children who need support or bills or other assets that need to be protected during the divorce, the court may enter a temporary support order.

Less than 1% actually go to trial. The ones that do go to trial are usually ones that have either a significant disparity in bargaining positions, meaning one person has a stronger position or more authority typically through past incidents of domestic violence or unequal financial control, or there is a complete impasse on certain issues and no middle ground can be reached. The cost is difficult to ascertain but it is usually significant.