How to get a divorce during coronavirus? How to get a divorce during a pandemic? How to get a divorce right now? If these questions all sound like questions about divorce that you’ve been asking yourself, keep reading. You may find out a few things you didn’t know about getting a divorce in Texas in 2020.
You Don’t Need a Separation Before Divorce in Texas
Texas doesn’t require a separation before a divorce can be granted. In divorce, that means that you don’t need to move out or be separated from your soon to be ex for any specific amount of time before you file for divorce or before you can finalize your divorce. You can file the Original Petition for Divorce without moving away from your spouse. And the Judge can sign the Final Decree of Divorce without you needing to be physically moved out and separated.
This could be good news for you if financial or economic uncertainty due to the pandemic and quarantine has left you without options, and you and your soon to be ex are getting along well enough that you can live in the same space together for an agreed amount of time. More people are living together after divorce now than a year ago, would be my guess, but people occasionally have lived in the same house for many reasons in the past including moving logistics, finances, and other reasons.
60 Day Divorce Waiting Period
Texas has a waiting period for divorce. But, the 60 day waiting period means that you can get divorced as fast as 61 days after the Original Petition for Divorce has been filed if you and your spouse can reach agreements and submit a signed Agreed Final Decree of Divorce. If you and your spouse agree about the divorce and agree about everything having to do with the divorce, you only have to wait 60 days to conclude your divorce. My team is able to prepare agreed divorces including filing the Original Petition for Divorce, and finish the divorce including submitting the Agreed Final Decree of Divorce on day 61, when we receive divorce agreements already made between two people.
And, even if we don’t receive all of the agreements right away, and two spouses are still working on their agreements we can get the divorce finalized very close to the end of the 60-day waiting period.
And, sometimes but rarely, an uncontested divorce will turn out to be an agreed divorce and we can conclude the divorce and have the final divorce decree prepared quickly. When the divorce decree can be prepared quickly the other spouse can review and sign the divorce decree so that the divorce decree can be submitted for the Judge to sign and enter in the divorce case. The divorce decree is the final document that grants the divorce and is one of the last documents in a divorce.
The divorce waiting period doesn’t mean that one has to get divorced on day 61 after filing the petition asking for divorce. So, we have more time than just 61 days to divorce, and in fact, the two spouses could even reconcile during those 60 days and never divorce. Just because a petition asking for divorce was filed doesn’t mean a divorce has to happen.
Electronic Texas Prove Up
Divorce attorneys have been required to file pleadings and other filings in divorce cases electronically for years. Long gone are the days that divorce attorneys or their staff drove up to the courthouse to file a pleading.
In Denton County, and across Texas judges have been figuring out new ways to work and bring cases to conclusion and that includes divorce cases in Texas. Our Denton County Judges very quickly created a way for us, divorce attorneys, to have prove up hearings without going to the courthouse. Granting a divorce requires certain evidence to be demonstrated or testified about to prove the legal evidence needed for the judge to grant a divorce. Divorce attorneys call that hearing a prove up hearing.
During the first part of the coronavirus quarantine, the Denton County Judges very quickly created requirements and procedures for electronic submission of the required evidence by sworn statements or affidavits and basically created an electronic Texas prove up. I concluded many divorce cases using the electronic submission and it was without any issues at all. And, the Denton County District Clerk’s office accepts and communicates with the lawyer Electronically submitting the evidence and the rest of the required documents actually works remarkably well, and in Denton County the Judges may keep the electronic prove up procedures after coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
To get started on an agreed divorce, and file the petition asking for divorce, call today to schedule your meeting with Lewisville divorce attorney, Jill O’Connell. Call 972-203-6644 and get on the calendar.