What is a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage?

Are you considering divorce and wondering about the steps in the process, or the types of documents you will need to file in order to move forward with the process of legally ending your marriage? If you have begun researching divorce in Florida, you may have found information about divorce in Chapter 61 of the Florida Statutes. Yet the word divorce is not prominent in a way that you might expect. Instead, you will likely have seen references to a pleading for dissolution of marriage, or a petition for dissolution of marriage.

In short, a pleading for dissolution of marriage, or a petition for dissolution of marriage, is the document that you must file in order to initiate a divorce case in Florida. Our Port St. Lucie divorce attorneys can explain in more detail.

Filing an Initial Petition for Dissolution of Marriage

When you are filing a civil case in Florida, you will often need to file a document known as a “petition,” which is a type of pleading. When it comes to divorce, you will need to file an initial divorce petition to get the case started in the court system. Yet as you will learn, under Chapter 61 of the Florida Statutes, divorce is formally known as a “dissolution of marriage.”

Accordingly, the first official or formal step in the divorce process is to file a pleading, or petition, for dissolution of marriage.

What Goes Into the Initial Pleading or Petition?

In your initial pleading for dissolution of marriage, you will need to plead either that “the marriage is irretrievably broken” (which is the pleading for a no-fault divorce in Florida), or “mental incapacity of one of the parties.”

For most parties seeking a divorce in Florida, the initial petition will plead that the marriage is irretrievably broken. The next steps will depend on the facts of the case, including whether there are minor children from the marriage and whether the other spouse denies that the marriage is irretrievably broken. When there are no children from the marriage and the parties agree that the marriage is irretrievably broken, the court can usually quickly enter a judgment for dissolution of marriage. When there are additional factors, however, you will need to plan for hearings and additional steps before the divorce can be granted.

Contact a Divorce Attorney in Port St. Lucie Today for Assistance with Your Petition for Dissolution of Marriage

If you are married to a spouse from whom you want to end your legal relationship, you will want to move forward with a divorce case in Florida. Yet as we noted above, divorce is not described as such under the Florida Statutes. Instead of seeing references to “divorce” under Florida law, you will see the legal process that you may know colloquially as divorce described as “dissolution of marriage.” Thus in order to get divorced, you will begin the process by filing a petition for dissolution of marriage (or your spouse can file), and our experienced Port St. Lucie divorce lawyers at Baginski Brandt & Brandt can assist you throughout the process. Contact our firm today to learn more about how we can help with all aspects of your Florida divorce.

Source: 

leg.state.fl.us/STATUTES/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0061/Sections/0061.052.html