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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Posts
    8

    Default What Happens After a Separation Action is Converted Into a Divorce

    My question involves a marriage in the state of: Arizona

    My wife filed for divorce in April of 2015. After trying to save things, she agreed to do a legal separation in September of 2015.

    On August 31 of 2016, she refiled for divorce. Rather than go through a marriage with my wife wanting out, I am giving up. There is a lot of history and pain, but that is for another forum, I guess... For the legal side, I have two questions...

    1.) If I do not file a response, she can get a default judgement. Since I can accept:

    A) terms of an agreement signed by both of us from April 2015
    B) terms stated in legal separation papers from September 2015 , and
    C) terms of what she requested in her most recent filing of August 2016...

    Do I need to file a response? Or can I just let it go to a default judgement?

    My concern is that she might be able to change the terms if it goes to a default. So could she change what she requested on her filings if I don't file a response?

    2.) Since it has been well over 60 days since her original filing in April of 2015, could we just file a joint Consent Decree of Dissolution and be done immediately? The only reason I would go that route is just to end this. We tried for the past year and while I would like it to work, if it does not (and she has made it clear it will not) we both need to just move on.... (yeah, sucks to be me right about now, but again, that is for another forum...)

    Or, since we had her original filing converted to a Consent Decree of Separation, do we need to start over, as she did, by filing the paperwork petitioning for a dissolution and wait sixty more days?

    While I am hurting, I must admit she has been fair in what she has asked for. I am just concerned if I don't file a response, she may be able to take that fact as freedom to try to change things and I would lose any right to protest. Obviously, I don't see her as the type that would take advantage of that, but the whole divorce thing took me for a loop last year, so I would rather be legally safe than not...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
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    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: What Happens After a Separation Action is Converted Into a Divorce

    If you choose to default, you run the risk that court proceedings will occur without your participation that may affect the outcome of the case. I suggest not defaulting and, if you and your spouse have agreed to a settlement of the issues, negotiating and entering a consent judgment of divorce consistent with your settlement agreement. If you are not in agreement about the terms of a settlement, that's all the more reason not to default.

    I don't see a provision that would apply the waiting period from the filing of a complaint for separation to a subsequent amendment or re-opening of the case for the purpose of pursuing a complaint for divorce.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Posts
    8

    Default Re: What Happens After a Separation Action is Converted Into a Divorce

    Quote Quoting Mr. Knowitall
    View Post
    If you choose to default, you run the risk that court proceedings will occur without your participation that may affect the outcome of the case. I suggest not defaulting and, if you and your spouse have agreed to a settlement of the issues, negotiating and entering a consent judgment of divorce consistent with your settlement agreement. If you are not in agreement about the terms of a settlement, that's all the more reason not to default.

    I don't see a provision that would apply the waiting period from the filing of a complaint for separation to a subsequent amendment or re-opening of the case for the purpose of pursuing a complaint for divorce.
    That is exactly what I feared, that things could change from the terms she put in the petition for dissolution.

    A consent judgment cannot be filed until the 61st day after her petition for dissolution, but I need to file my response within 20 days, so it looks like I am going to have file the response.

    We are in agreement about the terms, but I still want to be legally safe and make sure what she requested in her petition for dissolution is what happens.

    Just to clarify about the 60 day time period. When she originally filed last year, it was for a dissolution. We had a court date after the sixty days waiting period was up, and it is then that she agreed to switch it to a legal separation to give us a chance. Her new petition for dissolution was filed under the same case number, so I was curious about that, as this case is well over sixty days old...

    Thanks for your time.

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