Understanding the Oklahoma Divorce Process
What are the steps in divorce? Hi, I’m Tulsa family law attorney Keith Flinn. One, we have initiating the divorce, which includes filing and serving process and dealing with the surprise of service in some cases. This also includes a preliminary investigation where the client provides information to their attorney, which can either be substantiated, further investigated with the use of private investigation, or simply just the client providing documents related to assets and or evidence that will be used in pursuit of a particular custody plan.
This also includes separation. So this is going to oftentimes include the first time that parties are dealing with how to live together, but also separately. And this brings into consideration the fact that this is not going to be a complete separation for quite some time, and particularly quite some time if there are children involved. This also involves considering housing, maintenance, and scheduling, particularly if children are involved.
The Temporary Order Phase
Temporary order is going to be where the parties either agree or go to court and iron out the status of the party’s duties, obligations, rights, and responsibilities through the divorce process. And these orders are important because they can govern the parties for sometimes years, and you’re hoping that a divorce does not take years to accomplish, but they sometimes do for one reason or another.
This brings us to three, which is discovery of evidence, which can prolong the divorce if parties are not complying with the statutes governing timeliness for discovery responses. But discovery of evidence is a process by which we’re acquiring all of the documentation and evidence from the other party, including potential testimony through depositions, which is necessary to account for and divide assets, as well as to pursue a particular argument for client’s desired discovery or custody plan.
Your Next Steps
During this entire process, we’re engaging in settlement negotiations in order to try to get an agreement with the other party. This is because primarily for two reasons. One, an agreement is much cheaper than court proceedings, saving all of the expenses of attorneys and creating exhibits, private investigation, potentially expert witnesses, parenting coordinators, etc. And also, these agreements are usually better complied with by the parties in post-decree interaction, and that means parties usually follow agreements better, saving money on future litigation in post-decree proceedings.
Thanks for watching, I’m Tulsa divorce attorney Keith Flinn. Contact us today at 918-770-7117 for a low-cost consultation to discuss your Oklahoma divorce process.