New Mexico Uncontested Divorce Lawyers

The Difference Between Uncontested Divorce and Mediation

If you and your spouse have reached an agreement on some terms of your divorce, but would like a family law attorney to help you resolve the remaining issues, another good option can be a Mediated Divorce. In a mediated divorce, however, the attorney acts as a neutral third party who facilitates a settlement based upon his or her understanding of New Mexico law. In a mediation, the attorney usually prepares all paperwork necessary to finalize the divorce.

Can You Prepare Your Own Uncontested Divorce Documents?

Every year, couples throughout New Mexico successfully handle their own uncontested divorces. At the same, many couples create even further problems for themselves because of mistakes or oversights they make preparing their own documents or by using online companies who promise a cheap divorce packet. A few things you should consider when deciding whether to handle your own divorce rather than hiring an attorney are:

• The complexity of your divorce – People with few assets and debts have a far better chance of doing this successfully than people with complicated issues, especially involving child custody, spousal support, and real estate and retirement accounts.
• How well are you getting along? Completing an uncontested divorce packet does require that you and spouse spend some time and effort completing and filing the correct documents. We have certainly seen parties do this successfully. On the other hand, we have also seen many cases that should have settled, that instead fell apart because the parties could not cooperate sufficiently.
• How much work are you willing top put in? While most courts will provide you with an uncontested packet, there are still many questions you are going to have to figure out how to resolve, as well as determining which documents should be filed in your case.
• Unforeseen issues – Where we see the most problems in pro-se uncontested divorces are usually in the areas of taxes, child custody, retirement, how to deal with the marital home, and properly dividing debt. Even divorce packets you obtain from court do not explain how to draft things like enforcement provisions and alternative to returning to court. This means that in some situations, parties are creating problems around issues they do not even know exist.

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