The thought of getting a divorce can certainly be overwhelming. This is particularly true if your idea of getting a divorce means going toe to toe with your future ex on how to handle divorce issues such as property division.
The reality is that your divorce process does not have to be acrimonious, contrary to what you may see on television. It is possible to resolve your divorce issues outside of an Ohio courtroom so that you can move on with your life more quickly and peacefully.
Divorce settlements
If your future ex-spouse agrees with you on how to address the critical matters in your marital breakup, you can easily avoid going to trial. In fact, in most marital dissolution cases, couples achieve settlement through informal negotiations and thus do not need to proceed to trial.
During the negotiation process, you and the other party can simply discuss issues such as how to split your retirement savings, which of you gets to keep the family home, and whether one of you will pay alimony to the other party.
Judges’ involvement in settlement agreement processes
Once you and your future ex arrive at an agreement on each of your divorce issues, you can finalize your decisions in an agreement and present this document to a judge. The judge can then hold a hearing to ask you both some basic questions and see if the two of you understand the agreement. In addition, your judge will want to know if you both signed the document voluntarily. If your judge feels that you negotiated your agreement in a fair manner, he or she will most likely approve it.
What happens if you don’t agree on all divorce issues?
If you are like some couples, you might reach an agreement on several divorce issues but still struggle to find common ground in a couple of areas. In this situation, you can put together a partial settlement agreement and then resolve the remainder of the issues in court.
For instance, you and your future ex might have agreed on child support, child custody and visitation. However, you cannot see eye to eye on how to address your vacation home. In this situation, the court can approve your partial settlement agreement and then make the final decision regarding your vacation property. Both outside of court and in court, you have the right to pursue the most personally favorable divorce-issue outcomes possible.
