Have you begun the journey of divorce and now are wondering how you are going to manage things? This is what you need to know about what to expect after divorce papers are served.

Serving Your Spouse with Divorce Papers

When a potential client comes into our Rochester office, one of the first things they want to know is how to get started. The first step is to file the summons in the county clerk’s office and have the other party served with divorce papers. The person filing for the divorce cannot simply give the summons to their husband or wife; rather, it must be given to them by a process server or other third person. Generally, once we file that summons in the clerk’s office, we then have our process server go out and serve the other party –either at home or at work. We try to encourage our client to let their spouse know the summons is coming and try to choose the best time and place.

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Responding to Divorce Papers

When a potential client comes into our Rochester office having been served with a summons, they want to know how long they have to respond. In the state of New York, if you’ve been served personally – in other words, if someone has handed you the summons – the rule states that you have 20 days. In certain circumstances, you may have 30 days but, for the most part, when somebody hands you the summons, you have 20 days to respond. It’s very important that, once you receive that summons, you get in to see us as soon as possible because if you fail to respond within 20 days, you could be at a severe disadvantage.

How Long it Takes to Get Divorced

When someone comes into our Rochester office, one of the first things they want to know is how long it’s going to take. I immediately tell them that it really depends on the facts and circumstances of their specific case. As a general rule, I say that a divorce in Rochester could take from four to eight months, and that would be a relatively quick divorce. However, if there are issues where the parties disagree – whether that issue is children, money, or property – their divorce could take as long as a year to two years, depending on the amount of disagreement between the husband and the wife.

If you need strong legal guidance after you have been served or sent divorce papers, please call our experienced Rochester divorce lawyers today!