July 22, 2020

What is a “status conference,” and how does it affect your divorce? Things to know and to avoid for a successful divorce.

10 minutes

Be in Control &Know the Process

FREE 15 minute divorce planning and strategy consult, and instant access to ALL divorce info you need.

https://hellodivorce.com/sign-up/

For additional resources visit us at www.hellodivorce.com

-----

Welcome back to the Hello Divorce Podcast. And today I want to address a question that comes up quite a bit for California divorces, but as we prepare to launch into other states, the question comes up a lot more often. Which is what is a status conference? How do I prepare for one? And do I need to go even if my spouse and I already have a complete agreement on our divorce-related issues or we're working with a mediator in an effort to come to an agreement? So this is a really good question. And unfortunately, there's just not a lot of resources out there. A lot of the DIY type services or even lawyers will say, "Yeah, great. If you have an agreement, let's put it in writing. Let's do our best to avoid court." But what we don't talk about is sometimes depending on the state that you live, a status conference or a case management conference or something of the like is set automatically.

So that means that you filed the initial paperwork to get your divorce started and some states, and that actually even breaks down further than that. Because some counties, will automatically set a status conference or something of the like in your case, right from the beginning. So oftentimes what I tell people is if you really want to avoid that status conference, that court appearance, then maybe the best thing for you to do is to submit all your paperwork at once. So usually in most states, there are several steps that you have to take to get divorced. They include a petition or response or some sort of first paperwork. There's also usually financial disclosures. And then finally there's a judgment or a divorce decree or an affidavit or something that ends your divorce.

And in some cases you might want to try to submit all of those documents at once, if you really aim to avoid having to go to a court hearing. But I will say that in states that have waiting periods. So as an example, Colorado has 90 days, California has 6 months. These waiting periods usually begin after you have served your spouse with that initial paperwork that's been filed with the court. So if you want to get that waiting period going, then you might not want to wait to finish all of your paperwork before you submit it to the court. You might want to get started on that step one, so we can get that waiting period going. Additionally, even if you send in all your paperwork at once, it doesn't necessarily mean that you get to avoid a status conference, which is pretty ridiculous. I mean, talk about big brother. You have the courts saying to you, "Well, sure you have a full agreement or you're working on a full agreement, but we still want to check in with you."

...more