Can We Really Do This Without A Lawyer?

In the State of Washington a person may get a divorce without having to prove any wrongdoing. All that needs to be done is to ask the court to end his or her marriage because it is not working. The court decides how to divide your property and debts and whether to order spousal maintenance. The court must also establish a parenting plan and child support for any child who is dependent on the parties. The first task is to determine if you should try to achieve a dissolution by agreement with your spouse. Many divorcing couples often start out thinking that matters can be worked out between themselves only to find out later that they were flat wrong. An honest assessment of the issues is necessary. The following non-exhaustive checklist of concepts ought to be a good start for you:

Communication: Do you and your spouse have the ability to effectively communicate with each other? It may sound simple, but without two-way communication, you can forget about trying to achieve a dissolution though agreement.

Integrity: Can you and your spouse live up to the agreements reached? Or are you just setting up future disasters, which will ultimately end up in contested court action? The ability to live up to the negotiated, agreed-upon deal, must be honestly appraised for each of you.

Compromise: Is this about winning and losing to you or do you and your spouse see this process in terms of compromise? Maybe even more important, do you and your spouse have the ability to compromise with each other?

Dedication: Are you and your spouse able to see this process through to the end? At the first hint of disagreement or stalemate on issues, will you give up or will the two of you roll up your sleeves and work hard to explore a possible solution?

If you and your spouse can communicate with each other, have integrity in your dealings, be willing and able to compromise on issues and are dedicated to seeing the process through to the end, you should be well on your way to achieving a dissolution by agreement.

Taking An Inventory: How Complex Is This?

The State of Washington does not require that parties obtain the services of lawyer in order to go through a dissolution proceeding. Ending a marriage is a serious endeavor and there may be complex legal, financial and parenting concerns around every corner. While each party has the right to use an attorney to help navigate through the issues, neither party has to and may elect to do some or all of the dissolution on their own. This is discussed in greater detail at the end of this Chapter.

One way to identify potential issues or pitfalls for you and your spouse is to put down on paper all of the possible concerns that you may have going into the dissolution process. You and your spouse may find that in doing so, your situation is manageable without the need for attorneys, or that your issues are too complex to handle on your own. At the Appendix, you will find an Inventory of Property and Parenting Issues for you to complete. After putting down these issues on paper, you should have a better idea of what is involved in your own situation to decide how you want to proceed.

Being Your Own Legal Assistant

If you decide to handle your dissolution yourself, it's a good idea to make extra copies of each form you need. Use one as a draft for practice, or start your forms in pencil and copy over them in ink when you have them the way you want them. Your finished forms should be legible. Type them, or neatly print them using either blue or black ink. It may be helpful to use a blue pen for signing the forms, so that you can easily tell your original signature from any copies. Only documents with original signatures should be filed in the clerk's office or given to the judge.

You should make enough copies of all of the documents you file with the court so you have copies for yourself and copies for serving on the other party. When you file the original documents at the clerk's office, be sure to stamp the copies with the clerk's office stamp. Stamping the copies in this way is called "conforming copies".

Perhaps most important, always keep your papers organized. Have an indexed file of all court papers, correspondence, notes and any other documents concerning your case. It is very important to have documents demonstrating proof of service in your file, so make sure that service items are readily accessible in your file.

The Dissolution Process

Generally, the steps required for obtaining an agreed upon dissolution in Washington State are outlined below. A more thorough explanation for each step is set forth in the following chapters, however a brief overview of the process is important before you go any further.

Step 1: You and your spouse agree to dissolve your marriage.

Step 2: One party is the moving party, known as the Petitioner, and the other party is the responding party, known as the Respondent. The Petitioner drafts the Summons and Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, which is filed with the Court and served upon the Respondent (along with some other documents). In these initial documents, the Petitioner is setting forth some claims about the marriage as well as requests for relief in the proceeding.

Step 3: If the parties are in complete agreement, a Joinder document may be completed by the Respondent setting forth that he or she joins in the relief sought in the Petition. Otherwise, the Respondent's Response to the Petition will need to be drafted, filed with the Court, and served upon the Petitioner. This is done within a certain time period (either 20 days if in state, or 60 days, if out of state, after filing and service of the Petition).

Step 4: The parties work on the terms of the dissolution so that the Decree of Dissolution as well as the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law documents may be drafted up to reflect their agreement. If the parties have children, a Parenting Plan and Order of Child Support with Child Support Worksheets will also need to be prepared. Preparation of these documents to the satisfaction of both spouses will undoubtedly take the most amount of time, energy and effort, and to be successful, will require the most amount of compromise by each party.

Step 5: Once all the papers are agreed upon and signed by each spouse, and the 90 day waiting period has been satisfied, the parties will need to bring the matter before the Superior Court for entry before a Judge or a Court Commissioner (Court Commissioners are appointed by Judges and often help facilitate the Court's business by hearing Family Law matters). Each county has their own local rules, so it is best to check with the Clerk's Office or other court officials as to how to bring your uncontested dissolution matter before the Court for entry.

Step 6: Once you have your day in Court set, be sure to arrive promptly for your hearing. The Court will review the paperwork and may inquire of you and/or your spouse. If all is in order, you will leave the Court that day with your marriage dissolved.

Attorneys

As discussed above, the State of Washington does not require that parties obtain the services of lawyers in order to go through a dissolution proceeding. Dissolutions can be achieved through agreement, rather than get bogged down with finger pointing or hurtful name-calling. Through the use of mandatory forms, the process has become quite streamlined that many divorcing couples find that their issues can be worked out so that attorneys are unnecessary.

You can save a great deal of money and maintain a great deal of control over the dissolution process by making the significant decisions yourself. You may also wish to save money by doing routine typing and filing yourself.

It is important to note that the need for attorneys has not been eliminated. You may overlook a key issue and sign away a right that you might not be able to reclaim. For example, it is a good idea to have an attorney review your paperwork before you finalize your case. Similarly, your spouse should have an attorney of their own choosing do the same. A qualified attorney should be able to tell you if you are signing away rights that you shouldn't. This is an immensely important step in your life, if not the most important one, and, as such it stands to reason that you would want to be as careful as possible to get things right before the Decree is entered.

Likewise, you might want to have the attorney review the Summons and Petition for Dissolution so that you get the process off on the right track from the inception. The forms provided in the Appendix are the basic documents that are necessary, but as noted above, each County has its own local rules and procedures. As such, document requirements may vary from county to county. Another prudent step would be to verify with the help of an attorney that you are following the correct local rules and procedure for the particular county that you are filing in.

Lastly, if you and your spouse cannot reach agreement on any significant issue, and your efforts to reach an agreement are exhausted, you should consider being represented by an attorney. Additionally, if your spouse has already retained the services of an attorney, you should consider representation. After all, no matter how adept you are at learning this area of law and the procedures, because of what is involved, it is probably not in your best interest to go it alone against your spouse and his or her counsel.