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When I speak with new divorce clients, almost as popular as “How much is this going to cost me?” is the question, “How long is this going to take?” The answer depends on how long you have been separated, and whether your spouse will agree to a divorce.
Let’s assume that there are no additional issues to address such as property division, support or alimony, and that you and your spouse are looking for nothing but the piece of paper that says you are no longer married. In that case, getting a divorce in Pennsylvania is fairly straightforward. If the two of you have been separated for less than a full year, the no-fault divorce ground you will use is “mutual consent.” In that case, I like to tell clients that it will take about four months from start to finish, give-or-take.
Why so long? The “mutual consent” ground for divorce includes a mandatory 90-day waiting period between the filing and service of the first documents, and the earliest date that you and your spouse can sign the consent forms. Additionally, the court usually takes between one week and one month to process the final paperwork and issue your decree (depending on the county). You can think of the 90 day wait as a “cooling off” period, during which time either you or your spouse has the right to petition the court to order participation in marriage counseling (although in my experience, no one ever actually does this).
Once you and your spouse have been separated for a full year, you can use the “irretrievable breakdown” no-fault divorce ground. Many people in Pennsylvania believe — incorrectly — that divorce is automatic after a one-year separation, but all the one-year separation really means is that you switch to a different set of paperwork to go after your divorce decree. Because the 90-day waiting period doesn’t apply anymore, if your spouse cooperates it can reduce the time between the start and finish of your divorce process to about two months, give-or-take. Until December 2016 an irretrievable breakdown divorce required a two-year separation, and for couples who separated prior to that month, they still do; for more information, read my article about this change to Pennsylvania divorce law.
Whichever ground for no-fault divorce you use, in Pennsylvania you never need to see the inside of a courtroom if both you and your spouse cooperate to obtain your divorce decree.
Some words of warning: even if you and your spouse are friendly, even if you have decided to file the divorce paperwork yourself, it is a good idea to talk to a family lawyer at least briefly to make sure that you are actually giving yourself the closure that divorce is supposed to bring. I believe that the best time to get out of trouble is long before the trouble starts, and in my experience even well-meaning spouses can find themselves in an expensive fight neither of them wanted because something important was overlooked. Finishing your divorce process while leaving “loose ends” such as undistributed property or an unwritten promise of alimony invites exactly the sort of problem you are trying to avoid.
Another warning: don’t tempt fate by scheduling a wedding before your divorce is final! Obvious, you think? Not necessarily! I can think of two occasions during my career when I managed to get a divorce decree for a client the day before their wedding. I can think of more occasions in which planned weddings were spoiled. Don’t tempt fate! Nobody needs that kind of aggravation.
A final caution: there are “divorce mill” law firms that advertise cheap services. Before you pay anyone a price that seems too good to be true, ask some questions. Also, before you buy “off the rack” do-it-yourself divorce forms, take a look at the uncontested no-fault divorce kit we offer.
Related articles:
How long will my divorce take, if my spouse won’t agree?
Divorce: some questions and answers
If you need legal assistance with your divorce or family law matter in Southwestern Pennsylvania, call our office to set up a personal consultation with a Pittsburgh uncontested divorce attorney. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.
I would love to hire you but I’m in Philadelphia. I trying to find the best way to refile because my husband lied on the divorce papers and I wasn’t served til months after he filed. He said we was separated got 2 years but we was only married just over 1 year. Its goes much more deeper but most lawyers I talk to say it nothing I can do. You gave me a lot to think about. Thank you.
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I would have to know much more about the details of your situation to give you advice with real meaning for you; but if I understand you correctly, you received his statement that you were separated for two years, and you didn’t act in time to stop him from finishing the divorce process. If that is the case, especially if much time has passed since the divorce decree was entered, there may indeed be little or nothing do about it at this late date. Before you spend even one dollar more to explore the matter in more detail, though, the first question you should answer for yourself is, “What am I trying to get by doing this, and is that goal worth expense and trouble to pursue it even if the odds of success are bad?”
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I don’t think I will pursue it. Knowing he tampered with mail so I couldn’t get it, I was never served via a service. I can prove adultery on his end and abuse but end the end he won. Sad to say…
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If it helps, here is a link to the Pennsylvania law concerning opening of already-issued divorce decrees.
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My husband and I have been separated approx. A year now. He does pay me child suppprt and spousal support through a court order. My question is will my spousal support end if I file for divorce? When we married we agreed I would be a stay at home mom and I haven’t worked in 5 years. I am scared to file and lose that money I depend on. But I do not want to be legally married to him only for financial reasons.
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Filing for divorce does not, by itself, change your right to spousal support, because when you file you are still just as married as you were on your wedding day. It is only the award of a divorce decree that changes that, and all you are doing by filing is requesting it.
BEFORE you file, though, it is probably a good idea to enter into a professionally-written settlement agreement that will protect your support. Remember that divorce is supposed to be about economic closure as well as personal closure, so any rights that exist between you as a married couple (such as alimony!) disappear upon the award of a divorce decree if those rights have not either been claimed through the court (and claiming spousal support is not the same thing as claiming alimony!) or protected through a written agreement.
Claiming divorce without an agreement in place not only gives him a certain leverage to ensure that you keep the case moving forward, if you don’t also claim alimony at that time it means that you are relying on trust that your husband (however good his present intentions) will not break faith with you after the divorce decree is granted, which leaves you entirely dependent on somebody else’s good will. This is a dangerous place to be!
Consider also whether you need to remain on your husband’s medical insurance. When the divorce is final, you will no longer be insurable as a spouse.
I recommend bending a lawyer’s ear for an hour or so, so that the two of you can go over your needs, your goals, and what you need to do to make certain that you and your children are fully protected.
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If I move from MD To Fulton county, PA and my husband and I have ready been separated for 18 Months and there is 1 kid involved how long would I be looking at?
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IF your husband cooperates fully and IF there are no other matters to address other than legally dissolving your marriage, you are probably looking at about seven-and-a-half months from when you relocate here, to get a Pennsylvania divorce decree.
Each state has a residence requirement to allow you to use its divorce code, and Pennsylvania’s residence requirement is six months. Once you pass that hurdle and are able to file, it is reasonable to assume that you can obtain a decree within approximately a month and a half, give or take.
Your child probably does not affect that, unless Fulton County has a local rule requiring you to attend a parenting program (at least one county in Pennsylvania requires this); but in my experience, that is unlikely.
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My 76 year old lady friend is married to a man 71. He just filed for divorce. She is sickly and just had several surgeries. He is practically living next door with a woman he just met 3 months ago. He is verbally abusing his wife, just walks out to his lover’s house and says he won’t be home until morning! She has not received the papers yet,and he will not discuss what “he will give her”. I suggested she ask for spousal support, and check for hidden money I know he has. She will be seeing a lawyer, but was wondering if she should ask for a fault type divorce to assure she gets what is coming to her.. She is a meek and humble woman married to this man for 33 years.He has handled all the money, paid all the bills. She has never written a check, and always gave her entire pay check over to him. Any thoughts on how she should proceed. Thank You
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A “fault” divorce usually is not worth the effort; in the overwhelming majority of cases, it is far more trouble than it is worth. “No-fault” divorce does not mean that nobody crossed a line; it simply means that you don’t have to go through the effort of establishing that someone was a “bad guy” to legally dissolve the marriage.
Pennsylvania law excludes marital misconduct from consideration for purposes of property distribution, and while it is one consideration (out of seventeen) for purposes of determining alimony, there is no need to proceed with a “fault” divorce for her to be able to offer her proof.
I am glad to know that she is seeking legal assistance; with a marriage as long as hers, much is at stake. The right action taken soonest will serve her best.
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Thank you for your response. It has been 2 weeks since he filed, but she has not been served yet. Will this delay cause her to lose the time she needs to request spousal support and other specific things she needs?. She will be totally alone after the divorce.
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There is no need for a divorce filing to be able to claim spousal support, so in a real-world sense nothing is stopping her from claiming it immediately. In Pennsylvania, any spousal support entitlement she may have generally begins on the date she makes the formal claim for it from the family court. She doesn’t get punished for the court’s delay in scheduling the matter to be heard, but neither will the court punish her ex by awarding support that dates to before she ever filed the claim.
As for any other response options or claims she may have, I say again that she really, really should speak to a Pennsylvania family lawyer sooner rather than later.
If she hasn’t been served yet, getting a copy of what has been filed with the court is as easy as visiting the Office of the Prothonotary of the county in which the divorce has been filed, and asking the clerk to locate the file so that it can be reviewed. A divorce filing is a public record, and anybody can access it. Depending on your county, you might also be able to search the docket online. In Allegheny County, one can even print copies of the filed divorce complaint from a computer desktop.
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My fiancés ‘s wife told us she sent the papers back to the court but the court never recieved them… dodgy i know! So i had to pay a bailif to go to her house and serve her with the papers which happened last week. We have booked our wedding for october thinking everything wes going to be sorted, now we dont know if we will be getting married or not. I am organising things just incase it comes through at the last minute
Very stressful.
Sarah
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I try to avoid tempting fate like that! The only thing that actually divorces your fiancee is the divorce decree; otherwise, he is as married as he was on his wedding day to her.
Obviously I don’t know the circumstances, but if they have been separated two ro more years it could very well be that there is enough time… but there are, of course, no guarantees! There are any number of times in life that we are called upon to exercise patience, but when that happens I prefer the patience of the spider to the patience of the fly, every time.
In this case, that means that your fiancee might be well advised to take the situation into his own hands to the extent of his ability to do so, and that means getting in touch with a local divorce attorney who has the experience and the ability to get you the best chance of his being divorced in time for the two of you to get married!
I hope you manage to work things out successfully. After more than twenty years of experience as a Pittsburgh divorce attorney, I still believe in the happy ending. Speaking as a happily remarried attorney, I’d better! I know what my wife can do to me, if I ever forget to make her glad she said “yes” to a certain very important question.
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Both my spouse and I want the divorce, and i was wondering if i can get your expertise on online divorces. My spouse and I are planning our own divorce and we want it out of the court because of financial reasons. Is there another possibility for divorce to be done online? Thistoo seems ok (www.thistoo.co for reference), but I’m doubting on whether or not it’ll be trustworthy, as they are handling a lot of confidential information. Does anyone have experience with online divorce? Any suggestions would be appreciated thank you.
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What an interesting question! I took a quick look at the link you provided, and I am particularly interested in what they DON’T tell you… such as what state you would be filing your divorce in! One thing is certain, from what I’ve seen: it isn’t Pennsylvania. Where divorce law is concerned, fifty states might as well be fifty independent countries, and every state has its own domestic relations code. The “one year of separation” bit is a giveaway, because no ground for divorce in Pennsylvania requires a single year of separation.
From the looks of it, everything about the site makes promises without actually conveying any useful information. It may sound self-serving for me to say it, but compare what those folks tell you to my site, right here: I want people to be fully informed about what we offer and how it works, to the point that I answer questions and try to remove the mystery from approaching the court system in search of a divorce decree. That’s more than I can say for them.
There is no such thing in Pennsylvania as “online divorce,” as such, although in some Pennsylvania Counties (I practice law in Pittsburgh, and we can do it here) electronic filing is permitted so that we don’t have to file physical documents with the court. I suppose “electronic filing” doesn’t sound as catchy as “online divorce,” but one thing is certain: no court, no divorce. That doesn’t mean you actually need to go there, physically, and if you use our divorce kit you don’t have to go further than to the nearest mailbox.
A good divorce lawyer doesn’t try to mystify you; we try to remove the fog and help you make informed decisions. Professionally, sites like the one you have linked peeve me because they don’t tell you what you’re getting into.
If it helps, I also have an article about questions you should ask before you pay for a cheap divorce.
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