Divorce Court

Because everyone will want to know, the whole story of what happened when I went to court to get divorced I will type it out once and for all so that the story stays the same and everyone gets all the details they want.

I filed for divorce October 2005, after discussing with my soon to be ex-wife. The process was going to be short and simple, or at least it should have been. I would file, she would get a notification letter, she would not respond and I would be divorced 2 months later because there was no answer. So I thought by the first of the year I would be divorced.

Not so fast, she filed an answer with the court that said she did not agree with divorce and did not believe that the marriage was actually over. So my lawyer and her lawyer went back and forth for 13 months over the issue. Finally a court date was set and I made the 8 hour trek back to Columbus to go to court.

I walk in the courthouse with 2 things in mind, the first being to make as little communication with the other side as possible. The second is to say as little as possible to the judge, because I sometimes suffer from foot in mouth disease. I was successful in making zero contact with her and I think I said 5 words to the judge.

Some things don’t go the way you planned; they wind up being much better. The judge was an hour late getting to the court room for the case. The other party sat motionless and quiet for the full hour, I don’t believe they moved or spoke at all from the time they sat down until the judge came in the room. Can you imagine the agony of sitting motionless in a cold court room for 60 minutes waiting for a judge to show up and tell you what you don’t want to hear? On the other side of the room my lawyer and I sat and chatted about the weather and work and real estate, and a good run of other things while we waited. Chatting just like you would if you were waiting at a restaurant for lunch.

Oh, I almost forgot, when her attorney/brother walked in, he handed us an “official” un-filed statement from his side. I have never seen anything like this before, and I even asked my lawyer for a copy that I could keep and frame. The document contained all the known facts: wedding day, separation date, property division, that there was no hope of reconciliation, and there were no real objections. It also said that she agreed with everything that the original divorce settlement contained, except the fact that the marriage was irretrievably broken. The letter went on to say that according to GA state law number [I don’t remember] states that if married persons are not able to live in the same house then the marriage is broken.

When the Judge arrived in the room my lawyer stood up, read the document that he was handed that morning, verified everything with me, and sat down. The judge looked at me and asked for questions, then looked at them and asked for questions. Then he granted the divorce noting that he felt bad for making us wait so long for something so simple.

As they left the room, devastated I’m sure, the judge asked my lawyer two questions that I hope they heard. The first being, who is that guy, does he practice around here? The second, my favorite, “He does know that all of this could have been done months ago without having to come to court?” I smiled to myself thinking how bad they looked holding up the process for thirteen months, just to agree to everything in the end.