About Us

Each divorce is as unique as each family. It is important that your attorney understands the legal process, the practical implications of a particular strategy, and your individual needs and concerns. While a wide variety of issues have to be addressed in any divorce, most divorce cases involve resolution of the following matters: child custody and child support (where children are in the picture), spousal support (form, amount, duration, applicability or lack thereof), equitable division of marital property, equitable distribution of marital debt, assignment of separate property to the person who can prove that it is his or hers, and payment of attorneys' fees (how much, if any, and from what source).

The quickest way to be divorced is to resolve any and all issues between you and your spouse and to execute any and all of the requisite paperwork before a case is ever even filed - what we refer to as an "uncontested case." Once the "uncontested" case is filed, the State of Georgia imposes a mandatory 31 day waiting period before the Court can enter the Final Judgment and Decree of Divorce. In its fastest form, in other words, a divorce may be entered in as little as 31 days. For cases that begin in a "contested" posture (meaning, they are not formally settled prior to being filed), or for those cases that proceed through the Collaborative Law process, the timeframe will be significantly longer, and an exact end date cannot be identified with specificity. Factors that impact how long these latter types of cases to resolve include, but are not limited to, the county in which the case is filed, the actions taken by you and by your attorney, the actions taken by your spouse and by his or her attorney, whether a Guardian ad Litem and / or other experts are involved in the case, and how your assigned judge handles his or her particular docket. We will do our best to keep you informed throughout the process as to how a certain event may impact the progress of your case.

You must be able to state, under oath, that you are maintaining a "bona fide state of separation" from your spouse when you file your complaint for divorce or any answer and counterclaim to a complaint for divorce. While Georgia law is a bit murky on this point, most divorce attorneys and most judges consider "separated" to mean that spouses are no longer having sex and are no longer occupying the same room in the house; you do not need to occupy separate residences in order to qualify for a Georgia divorce.

Whether or not you must appear in court depends upon the county in which your divorce is filed, whether either party wishes for temporary relief that cannot be resolved by agreement, and whether either party wishes for final relief that cannot be resolved by agreement. Most cases are settled out of the courtroom on both a temporary and final basis. Even if the case is fully resolved by agreement, however, some judges ask that a party appear in person to finalize his or her divorce case by confirming, once again, that the marriage is irretrievably broken, that there is no hope for reconciliation, and that the agreement between the spouses and related documents should be incorporated into any Final Judgment and Decree of Divorce that is issued by the Court. Most of the time, a judge will receive an affidavit swearing to these statements in lieu of a physical appearance.