Eligibility For Summary Divorce

Posted on: 21 July 2018

A summary divorce is an oversimplified divorce process that doesn't take into consideration most of the issues involved in a conventional divorce. This is what you should opt for if you want to divorce fast without using a lot of resources. However, not everyone is eligible for a summary divorce; in most cases, you will only get a summary divorce if you can prove these things:

You Had a Short Marriage

Summary divorce is only available to those who have been married for a short period. A law firm, like The VK Law Firm, can determine what "short" here means, but in most cases, it is anything less than five years. This makes sense because the longer your marriage lasted, the more issues you will have to resolve during the divorce, which makes a summary divorce difficult. For example, you are likely to have acquired substantial assets over the years if you have been married for decades, and dividing them won't be easy.

You Don't Have Children

Child support and child custody are probably two of the biggest issues people fight over a lot during a divorce. In some cases, you may have to involve a child specialist or expert witness on child affairs to resolve the issue. That kind of acrimony has no place in a summary divorce, which is why only couples without kids tend to get summary divorces.

You Don't Have Substantial Assets

Having substantially valuable assets will also make it difficult for you to qualify for a summary divorce. This is because in addition to child support and child custody, asset division is also pretty complicated and tends to take considerable time during a typical divorce. Most states will require your total assets to be below a certain threshold if you are to get a summary divorce.

You Don't Have Substantial Debts

It's not just assets that couples have to divide during a divorce, even the debts have to be divided too. Therefore, the presence of substantial debts will also bar you from getting a summary divorce too. Again, there will be a limit to the amount of debts you can hold and still have a summary divorce.

No Alimony Expectation

Lastly, you won't be getting or paying any spousal support if you get a summary divorce. You must give up your right to alimony before getting a summary divorce. This is because determining the right alimony amount is not easy, and you are likely to spend considerable resources and time arguing over it with your spouse.

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