Boise Divorce Attorneys - Family Law Lawyers - Idaho Custody Attorney - Child Support Lawyer - The Anatomy of a Divorce

Boise Divorce Attorneys, Family Law Lawyers, Custody Attorney, Child Support Lawyer, Family Law in Idaho, call today for your free consultation.

One of the most frequent questions I get as a Boise Divorce Attorney is, how long does it take to get a divorce. While you might think that is an easy question to answer, it is not. The best answer, or at least the one that makes most sense to that question is, "it depends".

While the anatomy of a divorce is fairly similar no matter how complex your divorce gets, a lot depends upon conflict and agreement. While divorce lawyers know the anatomy of a divorce they often can't speculate very precisely how quickly it will be done. First, your attorney files the complaint for divorce. In this complaint your divorce lawyer will allege jurisdiction, grounds for divorce and how the property should be split, and the custody arrangement for the children and even perhaps the child support amount. If the other party does not respond, or does not object, the divorce can be granted and your child support and custody awarded fairly quickly.

While it can happen, divorce often doesn't go this quickly. Usually, the other party hires a divorce attorney and they file a response to the complaint. Generally they have a different idea of how property should be split and who should have custody and who should have visitation. Once this happens the divorce begins to slow down. The property must be valued, the parties are ordered to mediation of custody issues and you enter the phase called "discovery".

Divorce attorneys use discovery to understand what the issues of the case are going to be. Divorce lawyers send out interrogatories, a fancy name for questions, which must be answered by the other side's attorney. There is generally disagreement upon what the value of property is, who will value it and what is separate and what is community. Once the divorce attorneys have completed gathering the evidence they need they will get together and see if there is anything both sides can agree upon. Sometimes the parties will stipulate to certain facts and other times the only thing they agree about is that they should get a divorce.

If the divorce and custody cannot be settled through stipulation the case will go to trial. All the evidence the divorce attorneys gathered in discovery will be used during the trial. Each attorney will put on their case, laying out for the court the nature of the property (community or separate), its value and why it makes the most sense to go to whom. The attorneys will put forward why custody should be placed with one party or the other and how that is in the best interest of the child. Each lawyer will show, how based upon the individual incomes of the parties, what child support should be set as if the custody is split the way they propose.

Ultimately, the attorneys rest their case and it goes to the judge to decide. The judge looks at all the evidence and testimony and weighs the facts to determine how the property should be split, what is best for the children and grants the divorce and the custody based upon his or her judgment of the facts presented by the divorce attorneys.

So, once again, when you ask me or any other asked Boise Divorce Attorney how long it takes to get a divorce in Idaho and they answer, "it depends", you will know why that is the best answer.