Divorce Litigation

Petition for divorce - Must be filed in the county that you or your spouse live in

Serving the petition - The other party is served with the petition and they will need to file an answer. The other party is also allowed to file a counter-petition

Temporary orders - Once the petition has been filed, either party is allowed to ask for temporary orders that allow or forbid one or both parties from doing certain things

Mediation - This can happen at any point during the litigation process, but it will typically come after the discovery phase

Deposition - This is an oral statement of a witness under oath that occurs before trial. Depositions find out what a witness knows and it preserves their testimony. For a divorce case, witnesses may include family members, doctors, teachers, employers, counselors and neighbors

Final preparation for trial - All pre-trial documents will be submitted by both parties to the court and will state how they would like the different issues to be resolved by the court

Trial - Each party will present evidence on any contested issues. Each party will also have to testify under oath about facts that pertain to these contested issues and witnesses may be called to testify. One of the attorneys will need to prepare a Final Decree of Divorce that will state what all of the decisions were relating to the case and the judge will need to sign it

Appeal - If a party is not satisfied with the decision of the court or if they feel that a mistake has been made in regards to the law, they may ask for an appeal within 30 days of when the Final Decree was signed