One of the first questions that many divorce clients ask when they come in for an initial consultation is how long their divorce will take. Unfortunately, there isn’t a set time that it takes to get divorced. It all depends on the specific circumstances surrounding your marriage. Some divorces take longer than others for a number of reasons. For example, if the marriage only lasted a few years, the couple does not have any children together, there aren’t many assets and both sides are completely cooperative, it can go relatively quickly. However, if the couple has been married for many years, has children, has a lot of assets, and fights every step of the way, it can take years.
The minimum length of a divorce proceeding is about 10 weeks. That’s the quickest divorce I’ve ever done. Between the ten weeks and beyond, I’ve had divorces that went on three years, and everything in the middle. The goal of a divorce is not to make it as long as possible. I’ll tell you this, and it’s not to cause as much grief and destruction to the parties as is possible. That’s not a good way to get a divorce.
The best way to handle a divorce is to be reasonable, to talk, to figure out your affairs in terms of your property, in terms of where your children are going to live, if you have children, what the visitation schedule is going to be. Set it down in a property settlement agreement and be done with it. The one thing you don’t want to do in a matrimonial proceeding is to put additional stress on yourself and the other side, and you certainly don’t want to have undue – you don’t want any wear and tear on your children.
If you require strong and dedicated representation for any of your legal matters, contact The Law Offices of George J. Mardinly to schedule a consultation.