The divorce process is made up of four phases or stages: Commencement Stage, Information Gathering Stage, Settlement Stage and Trial Stage. Stage 1 is the beginning or commencement phase. A divorce is commenced by the personal service on the other partner of papers called the Summons and Petition for Dissolution. Service of the Summons and Petition can be performed by an uninvolved person passing on the papers to the spouse or if they are willing to acknowledge receipt of the papers by signing an Admission of Service, the documents can be delivered through the mail. Once the Summons and Petition have been correctly served, the spouse will have 30 days to reply to the initiating spouse with their answer to the claims in the petition.
The next phase of the divorce process is the Informational Gathering Stage. During this stage, information is collected and shared pertaining to such things as the assets and responsibilities of the parties, incomes and monthly costs. Attorneys are able to acquire the needed information through process of either precise or informal requests for documents and information. Oftentimes declarations of the persons are taken to assemble information but commonly the needed information is gathered through written requests. This stage is often referred to as the discovery stage.
Stage 3 of the divorce process is the Settlement Phase. During this time, agreement of the challenges will be attempted through negotiation or by using some form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The prevalent form of ADR is mediation. Mediation uses an outside party who assists the couple along with their lawyers in tying up the challenges. Mediation is a confidential process and the mediator does not have any decision-making authority.
The Trail Phase is the final stage in the divorce process. If the parties are unable to agree to a conclusion of all their controversies through negotiation or some form of ADR, then any unsolved matters will be determined by a trial and judge. A trial is a proceeding where each person is given the opportunity to give testimony and evidence on the disputed issues to a judge who then makes a decision for the parties. Cases rarely ever get to the trial phase due to settlement which is indeed fortunate since the Trial Phase is extremely expensive due to the large amount of preparation that goes into a trial.
Lisa Watson Cyr is a leading attorney and writer in Woodbury and St. Paul, Minnesota. Lisa offers a FREE Divorce Protection Kit at her well known blog. Visit Lisa's Blog at www.familylawmatters-mn.com for additional expert information and your FREE Divorce Protection Kit. Lisa built the Divorce Protection Kit to assist in the management of risk on several levels through the divorce process. obtain your free Divorce Protection Kit at www.familylawmatters-mn.com.
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