Legal Guide

How to Start Your Divorce Proceedings – The Right Way

While the concept of dissolving your marriage may be well-known, few people actually know how to go about this process. Misinformation and misguided attempts can often backfire, resulting in a lot of anger and long, drawn-out proceedings. Believe or not, there are many marriages that come to a relatively peaceful end. For this to happen, however, you need to be aware of how to go about all of this the right way. Here you will find a variety of tips to help you out with it:

Get Yourself a Proper Lawyer

It can be tempting to turn to the people around you for advice. Nonetheless, while they may be well-meaning, these individuals don’t have much to offer in terms of actual information. Often, their assistance relies upon stories passed down from other people and half-remembered details. If you follow this route, you can end up being misled and not have the proper facts on hand. This is why one of the first things that you will need to do is to speak with divorce lawyers Sydney. They are the only professionals that you can truly trust with such matters. These individuals will be able to explain the whole process to you and will be able to guide you on the next leg of your journey.

Talk to Your Spouse or Partner

If you were to only believe movies or TV shows, you would assume that all dissolutions of marriages were an angry ordeal. While this does happen, there are many instances when both people agree to separate and eventually dissolve their marriage. Of course, this is contingent upon how you approach all of these divorce proceedings. If your spouse or partner is willing, you should try to sit down and discuss the matter with them. Without getting angry or pointing fingers, you can explain why you think the separation is what is best for both of you. This way, you may be able to go ahead with either an uncontested or joint divorce, making things a lot easier for everyone involved.

Complete the Required Period of Separation

Now, you can’t actually dissolve the marriage straight away. This is because the courts require you to be separated from your spouse or your partner for no less than twelve months. It is only once you have completed this period of separation that you will be allowed to start the actual divorce proceedings. During this time, there are certain agencies that you will need to inform of the change in the status of your marriage. This is also a good time to discuss how things will be in the future. This includes anything from finances all the way to custody arrangements if you have children. Figuring things out at this point will help the rest of the legal proceedings go through more smoothly.

Filing for Divorce

Once you have satiated the terms of separation, you will then be allowed to file your Application for Divorce. Depending on the circumstances of the dissolution of your marriage, you may or may not need to make an appearance in court. If the proceedings aren’t being contested in any way, there shouldn’t be an issue. However, if there is some contention and you have children who aren’t of legal age, you may need to go to court. You can expect the entire process to take about three months to settle.

This is the right way to get your divorce proceedings started so that it is a much more pleasant experience.


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