INFORMATION PAGES
Missouri Uncontested Divorce Information
An uncontested divorce (or non-contested divorce) is a dissolution of marriage case where the spouses have an agreement on all aspects of the divorce.
Since 2009, I have handled over 600 uncontested divorces throughout Missouri. In contrast to contested divorce proceedings, uncontested cases allow the parties to decide for themselves the appropriate disposition for their property and debt, and what arrangements work best for the custody, visitation, and support of their children. Uncontested cases can be disposed of quickly and at a cost that is much more affordable than long, drawn-out contested divorces.
I take great pride in preparing high-quality pleadings as quickly as possible. Reviews from previous clients show that prepare uncontested divorce cases quickly and finalize the cases very fast and at an affordable price. Below, I have provided some information relating to uncontested / non-contested divorces in Missouri. This FAQ will hopefully answer some general questions that you may have about the uncontested divorce process. Please note that every case is different, and the following information should not be considered legal advice. If you have any other questions or would like to discuss your individual case further, please contact me directly at anytime. I also author a Missouri Uncontested Divorce Blog which is updated regularly with information I believe would be helpful to potential clients.
For a divorce to be uncontested, you and your spouse must have an agreed upon disposition for all issues that are addressed in a dissolution case, including, but not limited to:
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No. I have handled cases for clients that live all around Missouri. I have completed divorces for clients in Cape Girardeau, Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia, and Sikeston, just to name a few. In many of these cases, where my clients are located far away, we never met face-to-face. In fact, for a good number of my uncontested divorce cases, I am able to complete the entire process without my client ever needing to come into my office or even have a face-to-face meeting. We have been able to complete their entire divorce through email, phone, and mail. In almost all uncontested cases, a court appearance will not be required by you or your spouse.
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It depends, but I take great pride in getting the divorce started and finished as quickly as possible. Missouri has a mandatory 30-day waiting period between the filing of the Petition and the finalizing of the divorce. Many of the uncontested divorces I handle are complete shortly after the 30-day waiting period is over. I submit your case to the Judge as soon as possible after the waiting period lapses, usually on the 31st day after the filing of the Petition. At that point, the Judge reviews the file and signs the Judgment if he or she see no issues. Once the Judgment has been signed by the Judge, you are legally divorced. With flat fee pricing, I have no motivation to drag out your case, we both share the objective of getting your case completed correctly and as effeciently as possible. Please take a moment to look at past client reviews and testimonials which illustrates how quickly and efficiently my uncontested cases are handled.
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I now offer a secure and safe way to submit and pay for your Missouri uncontested divorce online. However, if you choose not to use the online submission, please contact me via email or telephone to discuss your case and obtain a price quote. Your price will likely be exactly what is provided here on my website, but in some cases, the particularities of your situation may warrant small increases in the fee. Once you have agreed on the fee, you will need to provide the information I need to complete the dissolution paperwork. This includes some personal information - names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, etc. - as well as a list of the property we will be dividing in the divorce, and some basic information about your income and expenses. This can all be done through email, over the phone, or, as most of my clients prefer, in a sit-down consultation. Once I have the information from you, I draft high-quality, personalized pleadings as efficiently as possible. There are times when previously scheduled court appearances, trials, and appointments can slow me down a bit, but I generally have the paperwork ready for review within one week from being hired. Once the paperwork is complete I email it to you, my client, for review. You can then review it with your spouse to make sure it is accurate and reflects the agreement you two previously came up with. If everything looks good, we are ready to proceed with obtaining signatures from the parties and filing the case with the court. Once filed, your part is pretty much done, and I take it from there, working to finalize the case as quickly as possible.
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Generally, from $500 to $850 or so, depending on if substantial property will need to be addressed in the Settlement Agreement and/or if children are involved. Please see my fee schedule for additional details. Every case is different and to obtain your exact price quote please call or email and we can discuss the pricing based on the specific details of your case.
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There will be a $140 filing fee due to the court. If there are children involved, each parent must take a mandatory one-time parenting class which costs $50 per parent in St. Louis County. In the event that you do not know where your spouse is, and we can only get proper service through publication, there is a $200 publication fee due to the newspaper (and additional attorney fees as well).
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I am asked this question by every new client, as most people never want to appear in court if they don't have to. If your uncontested divorce does not involve children, it is almost a certainty no court appearance will be required. In fact, in over four years as a solo-practitioner focusing in uncontested divorces, I have never had a client need to appear in court when there were not children involved. Even if children are involved, it is very unlikely that a court appearance will be required. In that same four-year time period, I have had two clients that were required to appear in court to finalize their uncontested divorce with children, and those cases had unique factors that most cases will not have.
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No. An attorney can only represent one party. Even in an uncontested situation, where the parties have already figured everything out between themselves, there is not a situation where I can represent both parties. That does not necessarily mean, however, that there must be an attorney on the other side. In about 99% of my divorces I am the only attorney on the case.
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Yes. I handle divorces where there is a missing spouse. If, after making a good-faith effort to locate them your spouse is still missing, we can obtain service on them through service by publication. This will increase your expenses, as the publication fee paid to the newspaper is $200. Obtaining service by publication will also increase the time it takes to obtain your divorce. When using service by publication, we have to wait for the ad to be approved and ordered by the court, followed by an extended waiting period of 45 days (as opposed to the normal 30 day waiting period), followed by the time it takes to get a court date for the default hearing. There is also an attorney fee associated with the default hearing.
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That's your call, of course, but I will say that I have had many, many clients who come to me for an uncontested divorce after them and their spouse tried, and gave up, handling the divorce themselves. Once you've completed the hundred someodd pages of pro se paperwork required to file the divorce, you still need to navigate the case through the courts, attend a Pro Se Litigant Awareness Program, and attend at least one court appearance to present the case to the Judge. This is generally not an intuitive or easy process, and the complexities lead some people to abandon the case, forfeiting their filing fee and wasting their time.
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The information provided here is for educational purposes only and should not be relied on as if legal advice. I will be happy to speak with you regarding any questions you may have regarding the uncontested divorce process.
Please click here for my contact information.
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I take great pride in preparing high-quality pleadings as quickly as possible. Reviews from previous clients show that prepare uncontested divorce cases quickly and finalize the cases very fast and at an affordable price. Below, I have provided some information relating to uncontested / non-contested divorces in Missouri. This FAQ will hopefully answer some general questions that you may have about the uncontested divorce process. Please note that every case is different, and the following information should not be considered legal advice. If you have any other questions or would like to discuss your individual case further, please contact me directly at anytime. I also author a Missouri Uncontested Divorce Blog which is updated regularly with information I believe would be helpful to potential clients.
UNCONTESTED DIVORCE Q&A
- Is my divorce uncontested?
- Do I have to live in St. Louis to use your services?
- How long will my uncontested divorce take?
- What is the process for starting my uncontested divorce?
- How much are attorney fees for an uncontested divorce?
- What other costs are associated with the uncontested divorce?
- Will I be required to appear in court?
- Are you representing both parties?
- I don't know where my spouse is, can I still use your services?
- I downloaded the forms, should I just do this myself?
- My question is not answered here - how can I contact an uncontested divorce attorney?
UNCONTESTED DIVORCE FAQ
Serving all of Missouri
By: Gerald W. Linnenbringer
Is my divorce uncontested?
For a divorce to be uncontested, you and your spouse must have an agreed upon disposition for all issues that are addressed in a dissolution case, including, but not limited to:
+ Who takes what assets
+ Who will be responsible for what debt
+ How debts will be refinanced, if necessary
+ Will one party be responsible for paying the other maintenance, and, if so, how much and for how long
+ All child custody arrangements, including visitation, holiday visitations schedules, vacations, etc.
+ All child support arrangements, including who will child support, how much child support will be paid (if any), who will cover the children's health insurance, how daycare expenses will be paid, who will claim the children as dependents for tax purposes, how will college expenses be paid, etc.
+ Who will pay the court costs and attorney fees
As you can see, everything must be agreed upon for your divorce to be considered uncontested.
+ Who will be responsible for what debt
+ How debts will be refinanced, if necessary
+ Will one party be responsible for paying the other maintenance, and, if so, how much and for how long
+ All child custody arrangements, including visitation, holiday visitations schedules, vacations, etc.
+ All child support arrangements, including who will child support, how much child support will be paid (if any), who will cover the children's health insurance, how daycare expenses will be paid, who will claim the children as dependents for tax purposes, how will college expenses be paid, etc.
+ Who will pay the court costs and attorney fees
Do I have to live in St. Louis to use your services?
No. I have handled cases for clients that live all around Missouri. I have completed divorces for clients in Cape Girardeau, Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia, and Sikeston, just to name a few. In many of these cases, where my clients are located far away, we never met face-to-face. In fact, for a good number of my uncontested divorce cases, I am able to complete the entire process without my client ever needing to come into my office or even have a face-to-face meeting. We have been able to complete their entire divorce through email, phone, and mail. In almost all uncontested cases, a court appearance will not be required by you or your spouse.
How long will my uncontested divorce take?
It depends, but I take great pride in getting the divorce started and finished as quickly as possible. Missouri has a mandatory 30-day waiting period between the filing of the Petition and the finalizing of the divorce. Many of the uncontested divorces I handle are complete shortly after the 30-day waiting period is over. I submit your case to the Judge as soon as possible after the waiting period lapses, usually on the 31st day after the filing of the Petition. At that point, the Judge reviews the file and signs the Judgment if he or she see no issues. Once the Judgment has been signed by the Judge, you are legally divorced. With flat fee pricing, I have no motivation to drag out your case, we both share the objective of getting your case completed correctly and as effeciently as possible. Please take a moment to look at past client reviews and testimonials which illustrates how quickly and efficiently my uncontested cases are handled.
What is the process to get started
I now offer a secure and safe way to submit and pay for your Missouri uncontested divorce online. However, if you choose not to use the online submission, please contact me via email or telephone to discuss your case and obtain a price quote. Your price will likely be exactly what is provided here on my website, but in some cases, the particularities of your situation may warrant small increases in the fee. Once you have agreed on the fee, you will need to provide the information I need to complete the dissolution paperwork. This includes some personal information - names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, etc. - as well as a list of the property we will be dividing in the divorce, and some basic information about your income and expenses. This can all be done through email, over the phone, or, as most of my clients prefer, in a sit-down consultation. Once I have the information from you, I draft high-quality, personalized pleadings as efficiently as possible. There are times when previously scheduled court appearances, trials, and appointments can slow me down a bit, but I generally have the paperwork ready for review within one week from being hired. Once the paperwork is complete I email it to you, my client, for review. You can then review it with your spouse to make sure it is accurate and reflects the agreement you two previously came up with. If everything looks good, we are ready to proceed with obtaining signatures from the parties and filing the case with the court. Once filed, your part is pretty much done, and I take it from there, working to finalize the case as quickly as possible.
How much are attorney fees for an uncontested divorce?
Generally, from $500 to $850 or so, depending on if substantial property will need to be addressed in the Settlement Agreement and/or if children are involved. Please see my fee schedule for additional details. Every case is different and to obtain your exact price quote please call or email and we can discuss the pricing based on the specific details of your case.
What other costs are associated with the uncontested divorce?
There will be a $140 filing fee due to the court. If there are children involved, each parent must take a mandatory one-time parenting class which costs $50 per parent in St. Louis County. In the event that you do not know where your spouse is, and we can only get proper service through publication, there is a $200 publication fee due to the newspaper (and additional attorney fees as well).
Will I be required to appear in court?
I am asked this question by every new client, as most people never want to appear in court if they don't have to. If your uncontested divorce does not involve children, it is almost a certainty no court appearance will be required. In fact, in over four years as a solo-practitioner focusing in uncontested divorces, I have never had a client need to appear in court when there were not children involved. Even if children are involved, it is very unlikely that a court appearance will be required. In that same four-year time period, I have had two clients that were required to appear in court to finalize their uncontested divorce with children, and those cases had unique factors that most cases will not have.
Are you representing both parties?
No. An attorney can only represent one party. Even in an uncontested situation, where the parties have already figured everything out between themselves, there is not a situation where I can represent both parties. That does not necessarily mean, however, that there must be an attorney on the other side. In about 99% of my divorces I am the only attorney on the case.
I don't know where my spouse is, can I still use your services?
Yes. I handle divorces where there is a missing spouse. If, after making a good-faith effort to locate them your spouse is still missing, we can obtain service on them through service by publication. This will increase your expenses, as the publication fee paid to the newspaper is $200. Obtaining service by publication will also increase the time it takes to obtain your divorce. When using service by publication, we have to wait for the ad to be approved and ordered by the court, followed by an extended waiting period of 45 days (as opposed to the normal 30 day waiting period), followed by the time it takes to get a court date for the default hearing. There is also an attorney fee associated with the default hearing.
I downloaded the forms, should I just do this myself?
That's your call, of course, but I will say that I have had many, many clients who come to me for an uncontested divorce after them and their spouse tried, and gave up, handling the divorce themselves. Once you've completed the hundred someodd pages of pro se paperwork required to file the divorce, you still need to navigate the case through the courts, attend a Pro Se Litigant Awareness Program, and attend at least one court appearance to present the case to the Judge. This is generally not an intuitive or easy process, and the complexities lead some people to abandon the case, forfeiting their filing fee and wasting their time.
My question is not answered here - how can I contact an uncontested divorce attorney?
The information provided here is for educational purposes only and should not be relied on as if legal advice. I will be happy to speak with you regarding any questions you may have regarding the uncontested divorce process.
Please click here for my contact information.
More info on Missouri Uncontested Divorce at my Blog
More info on Missouri Uncontested Divorce at my Blog
