I'm sure you have heard of divorces that have drawn out over several months, involved several courtroom battles, cost the parties several thousands of dollars in attorney's fees and left both parties in shambles. Well, unfortunately, some divorces are going to go this way.

However, for a great number of people, the non-contested or no-fault divorce, as it is often called, would be an ideal option. While I'm not promoting divorce, if it seems inevitable, any rational person should first consider to see if a non-contested divorce is possible. Non-contested means, as its name implies, that none of the issues are contested. They are resolved by agreement. Basically, if the two parties can agree on all the issues pertaining to their divorce, there is no need to argue them. This is not always easy, but it is virtually always, quicker, and cheaper.

There can be several issues to decide. If you have children, you must decide on:

The attorney can help define the issues for you, and reduce them to writing. That is, help you to understand which issues you must agree on, and put them on paper in the proper legal form that the courts require.

Non-contested divorces are usually much quicker. After the non-contested divorce package has been on file for 31 days, it can be put on a court calendar and finished in little over a month.

The term "no-fault" is applied to non-contested divorces in this state because the parties can offer as a ground, that their marriage is irretrievably broken. That is neither parties has to allege that their spouse has committed some terrible "wrong " in order to be granted a divorce, but simply, their marriage is broken and cannot be put back together. This relieves quite a bit of tension between the parties, but it also helps parties with minor children as well.

A party filing for divorce in Georgia must have been a resident here for at least 6 months prior to filing for divorce. A common requirement for some jurisdictions is that the parties with minor children must first complete a divorcing parent's seminar before a divorce will be granted. Most jurisdictions have some differences that are discovered as you handle divorces in their courts that are relatively new requirements or that are just different from other courts. But if you can agree with your spouse on all the issues, then an attorney can handle the rest as a non-contested divorce.