Filing for divorce is difficult in and of itself. However, when you have a partner who does not want to finalize the divorce and wants to focus on repairing the marriage, the divorce can be much more difficult. Your partner may become uncooperative. Fortunately, you can proceed with the divorce process even if your partner is not cooperative.
While your partner cannot stop a divorce from occurring, he or she can make the process more difficult. Rather than handling the situation out of court through divorce mediation, you will instead need to handle the process through litigation. Before going through with divorce mediation, you should make the case to your ex for why he or she should cooperate.
Child Custody Considerations
If you have children, your ex will not have as much control over who has custody of your children and how they will be parented. If he or she then tries to later gain custody, the process will be much more difficult and he or she will not have as much control.
Reaching an Unusual Agreement
Given your unique situation, both you and your ex will benefit more from divorce mediation. The job of the mediator is to come to an agreement that both partners are happy with. If your partner wants to have an agreement that deviates from the norm, judges will not be as accommodating as a divorce mediator.
If handled through the courts, your partner might feel like the court decision was more in your favor. With divorce mediation, this is much less common because the goal of mediation is not for one side to win at the expense of the other.
Cost Considerations
Divorce mediation will be much less expensive than everything else. You will only have to pay for the meeting and you will typically not have to wait as long as you would for a divorce handled through the courts.
Moving Forward When Your Partner Still Refuses
However, if your partner still refuses to cooperate and won't sign divorce papers, you will be able to move forward. When your partner is served divorce papers and does not respond properly, you may sign a request to default. The court will set a hearing date after you have issued a divorce petition and request that you appear. You could potentially receive exactly what is in your divorce petition or may decide to issue a different ruling.
Reach out to professionals like Chesney & Nicholas LLP for more information.
Share5 April 2018