Is it true you can do your own divorce?

Question

I had a friend who said she filled out her own divorce papers, which she picked up from our local county court building, paid around 150 dollars and had them filed through the courts. I'm just wondering if this is true and if anyone else has ever heard of this. It sound simple and a whole lot cheaper to me. Thanks!

Answer 1

You really can do a pro-se action in any jurisdiction but you will usually find that the people at the courthouse are not allowed to help you with anything, which means you have to find out from someone how many documents you have to file and what format that have to be in.  

Answer 2

Yes I did my divorce pro-se, which means with no lawyer, you can get all the documents at your local court house.  

Answer 3

Yes you can file yourself.  

Answer 4

Yes, of course you can do it yourself. The reason why people hire attorneys is not to file divorce paperwork for them, but to help split the assets and deal with child custody. If you two agree on how everything should be divided and you don't have complicated financial situation, filing for divorce is very easy. My ex and I did it ourselves. It only gets complicated when you own a bunch of stuff together or have joint debts or kids.

Answer 5

In some jurisdictions, yes.  But there are usually requirements such as married less than 1-2 years, no children of the marriage, no joint property or joint debts.  Check with the courthouse to see if your situation qualifies.

Answer 6

You can do you own divorce, but it is very risky.

Things that go through the court must be sone in exactly certian ways  If you fail to do things that way, your papers are voided.

Also, there are some things you CAN'T do in a divorce. Like, you can't sell your home for One Dollar jut so your spouse only gets Fifty Cents. In most states, you can't  make an arragement stating "We agree that he won't pay any child support and that he won;t ever see his kids again".

If things aren't just EXACTLY right, the court can declare you divorce void at any tuime.  So two years alter, you want to get married again, but you spouse doesn't like your new friend, so they go an say the divorce wasn't legal and you find out that you are STILL MARRIED.

If both you and your spouse want the divorce, there is no "mutual property (houses, cars, etc) and you can agree on who own everything else, and there are no kids, you can get by doing it yourself.

Otherwise, you'll save yourself a lot of grief (but not money) by using a lawyer to get it done right the first time.