Dissolution of Marriage Divorce — Petitioner's Forms. These forms are designed for people who agree on the terms of their dissolution of marriage. How to use the forms: You must save each form before you begin entering information in the form fields. Right click the link for a form and save it to your computer before you begin entering information in the form fields.
If you are downloading the form from a public computer, be sure to save the form to a personal device, such as a thumb drive. If you have technical difficulties completing the forms online, you may print all of the blank forms and fill them out by hand to file with the court. Please check with your local court for further instructions. You are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of any information submitted on the forms. When it comes to getting started and making payment, the choice really comes down to whatever is most convenient for the client. For a more comprehensive look at starting your uncontested divorce with Linnenbringer Law, please head over to the Getting Started page.
Now you wait, but just for a little bit.
How much is it? How long does it take? Linnenbringer Law solves the puzzle of divorce.
I can get most of my uncontested divorce paperwork out to the client who then shares it with their spouse for review within two to three days. If I have a lot of court appearances in a certain week, or a number of appointments, that can delay things a day or two, but, generally speaking, the rough draft pleadings are in your inbox, ready for review, in just a couple of days.
After you and your spouse review the pleadings carefully, you will provide feedback as to what needs to be revised, corrected, added, etc. If not, the requested revisions are made, always in 24 hours or less, and new drafts are sent to you for review. Once we have mutually acceptable drafts, we can proceed to getting everything signed. In order to file your case, we need signed originals of the pleadings I have prepared for your case. You have three options, basically, for how this step gets completed: First, I can email you everything to print and sign.
I've come up with a nice system to make the required signings as clear as possible. With my method and the easy-to-follow, clear and detailed instructions I provide, it is rare that the paperwork is not returned to me perfectly signed and notarized. You and your spouse follow the signing instructions, have signatures notarized where applicable and instructed, and mail or hand-deliver everything back to my office. Your second option is for the client to can come in to the office sign their portion of the paperwork, and then take the pleadings to their spouse for signature.
Much like the first option, the instructions and method I have developed to get this done works to reduce the chance that the paperwork is signed incorrectly. You facilitate getting your spouse's signature again, with a notary public witnessing those signatures where applicable , and then you bring the paperwork back to me, at which point I take it from there.
Finally, your third option is to both sign at my office by appointment only. Spouses can come together or separate, it does not matter to me.
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If both parties sign at my office, I can provide notary services for both parties. Once I have signed paperwork and the filing fee, your part is pretty much done and I take it from there. I prepare the coversheets for your case, organize it for filing, and then drive it up to the court. The day I drop it off with the filing window clerk is the date the case is considered filed. The following day is the first day of the mandatory 30 day waiting period. Once the days is up, I appear in court, pull your file, and present it to the Judge.
I can only get your final paperwork in front of the Judge as soon as I can, the rest is out of my control.
Once your paperwork is on the Judge's desk, it's up to the Judge how long it takes to address your file. Judges go out of town, they conduct trials, and are generally just busy. So, please don't be surprised if you don't hear from me on day 31, 32, or even Don't get me wrong, I have had plenty of cases get finalized on the 31st day, but it's certainly no guarantee. I'll do my job as quickly as I can, and then, just like you, I'll be waiting for word that your file has been addressed by the Judge.
It is also worth noting, that often times I will get word of the divorce being final a few days after the Judge has signed and the case is final. Either way, while it remains the objective to have my client's uncontested divorce submitted to the Judge as quickly as possible, there is no longer a desk, nor a physical file, nor much of any control as to how quickly the Judge signs off on the now electronically submitted Judgment.
The most I can do which I do quite often is to keep an eye on cases that start to linger in the electronic abyss, and then go up to court and harass the clerk about it. This does actually work, but nothing will ever be as quick as the old days with the physical files.
For parties without children, without maintenance obligations, and without any jointly titled assets or debts, there isn't a lot to do once the divorce is final and complete. For parties with children, they will start following the terms of the Parenting Plan, including the custody exchange schedule and child support obligations. Title work and refinancing will occur post-dissolution as well, if not taken care of already, as the parties will want to have their ex-spouse removed from any jointly titled assets or debts that they are taking post-dissolution.
For sure, it is important, and easier on everyone, if the parties can maintain the ability to contact one another and work cordially together until all post-dissolution matters are taken care of. Something as simple as having a quit-claim deed signed can become a real problem if the other party disappears or all of the sudden decides they shouldn't abide by the terms they agreed upon in the marital settlement agreement. Marital property, in the most general terms, is property, assets, debt, etc that you acquired since the date of the marriage.
People come in to the office all of the time and say things like, "the house is mine, I owned it prior to marriage and I'm the only one on the title. In other words, you had it completely paid-off prior to the day you and your spouse married?
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Further, how the property is titled is generally inconsequential. You'll need to figure out the marital equity in the home and prepare to divide it in the divorce.
There is certain property acquired during the marriage that is considered non-marital, however, like property acquired by gift, or through inheritance, for instance. I suggest to clients that they provide as much detail as possible, as a more detailed plan reduces ambiguities and the potential for future disputes. I have refined my pleadings in a way to reduce, if not eliminate to the extent possible , the "what if this happens" post-dissolution issues.
No, Missouri courts do not require an exact split. Missouri requires an equitable division of marital property. Equitable does not necessarily mean equal. In fact, there are certainly circumstances, such as situations where one party has committed marital waste, that would possibly make an equal split inequitable. In uncontested cases, the courts, in my experience, generally assume that the agreement presented is equitable, which is why each party has signed off on it. The court is there to resolve disputes, not cause them, and will generally prefer not to jump in and break up an agreement that has been reached between the parties.
How your assets and debts are titled is not dispositive as to whether or not the asset or debt is considered a marital piece of property or debt. After marriage, Wife's monthly car loan payments assuming the payments are made with marital funds would be considered marital contributions towards the outright ownership of the car. While not controlling as to the marital vs. Kind of. A divorce will not, in and of itself, modify who is on the title of your home or who is on the mortgage secured by the home.
The divorce will, or should, if drafted by a competent attorney, have provisions in the settlement agreement that dictate what the parties should do post-dissolution in order to tie up these loose ends. For example, let's say you have a jointly-titled home where both parties are on the mortgage - the most common situation for married couples. The parties agree Wife shall take the home in the divorce. What needs to happen then?
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Wife needs to refinance the mortgage in order to remove Husband's name from the note, as Husband should not be financially on the hook for an asset he no longer owns pursuant to the settlement agreement and post-dissolution distribution of property. Concurrently with this refinance, Husband would execute a quit-claim deed in order to remove his name from the title of the home. Once these two steps are completed, you can see the clean split - Wife is the only one on the title, and she is also the only one on the mortgage that is secured by her home. Note that when cash buyouts are to be paid used when equity exists in the home that the parties want to divide without selling the asset , this cash can sometimes be drawn out at the time of refinance.
Maintenance payments are post-dissolution spousal support payments. In the past, these spousal support payments were known as alimony. Maintenance can be modifiable or non-modifiable. The distinction between these two types is exactly as it sounds - one can be changed by the court at a later date, the other can't.
On the other hand, if the maintenance obligation is modifiable, then either party can, with a motion to modify, change the maintenance obligation.
Of course, they can't file or at least be successful on a motion to modify unless they can prove that the modification is legally warranted, given the current situation of the parties. In legal terms, the person requesting the modification will have to show a continuing and substantial change. In other words, the person filing the motion to modify must show that, since the date of the original judgment, things have changed so much that the terms of the original judgment are now unreasonable.
Five years after that Judgment is entered, Husband loses all of his fingers in a bear trap. No longer able to play trumpet, Husband's income plummets. Husband could then file, but probably not type up himself, a motion to modify the maintenance obligation.
His motion to modify would be based on the continuing, substantial change that he is no longer able to practice his craft and earn the income the original maintenance order was based off of.