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Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantell with another edition of Family Law Matters with Bonnie Rabinovitch-Mantel, owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group. Hi Bonnie. Hi Michael, it’s wonderful to see you again.

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It’s always good to see you here and in person. Bonnie, this week I want to talk about an interesting topic in the area of family law, particularly in divorce. And I know Primus Family Law Group doesn’t only deal with divorce, but this is an interesting question that’s come up.

A couple have been at it for a long, long time talking about divorce, always with some ambivalence, but they finally filed the papers and they held those papers for a few weeks, ambivalent. Should I sign? Should I not sign? They sign. Within a month after they sign, they start wondering, hmm, you know, maybe we shouldn’t have done this.

Maybe we shouldn’t be divorced. What do people do when that happens? So you’re telling me that they’ve actually filed the entire judgment package. They came to an agreement, they filed it with the court.

Well, good thing is our courts are a little overloaded, so it can take three, four months to process a judgment. So if you do change your mind before it’s been stamped as a court order, you can just go in and have it pulled. You can really get rid of it that way.

It may require some conversations with a court clerk to find it, but you can get rid of it pretty easily. Now, if it’s already been stamped, then you have to file a motion to set it aside. But if both of you are in agreement, again, it’s a simple process.

So, you know, and obviously the third method is if you’ve waited too long and there’s no way to set it aside because there are timelines, you just get remarried. And so is this common? I imagine it’s not very common. It’s not common, but it does happen.

In fact, I had a couple, I was delivering their judgment to the judge, wanted it to be done quicker. So I had filed a motion to get it entered quicker and they ran into court. You know, they weren’t even needing to be there, but they had decided and they ran into court and were like, don’t sign it.

And I’m okay. Judge kind of looked at them and looked at me. He’d never seen it before, but it does happen.

And this happens when they’re ready to sign that document, property discussion, disillusion has already been agreed upon. They put some things into process already, but their heart says something else. And that’s when couples go into marriage coaching and marriage, you know, relationship counseling and so forth and begin to step back and say, no, let’s wait.

Now, what about the six-month waiting period that people have? Does that enter into this? Well, no, that six-month waiting period, it’s just, it’s such a poor misnomer. You are required when you file your petition and you serve it, there is six months before the court will actually stamp a divorce because they do want you to think about it. But the way the process is designed is that during those six months, you have a lot of things that you have to do.

You have closures you have to do. There’s documents to be exchanged. There’s whether or not you can come to an agreement versus whether or not you litigate.

If you litigate, chances are you’re going to hit that six-month mark just from the first set of hearings. So by the time you resolve everything, six months will have already passed. There is no further six-month waiting period.

If, on the other hand, you’ve got couples who are using our arbitration and mediation services, the chances of being done within six months is far greater. So then what the court does is, let’s say you’ve done all your disclosures, all the documents, and you’ve come to an agreement that you’ve written and signed in month four. The court will accept that document and will then process it, but you won’t be considered single until month six.

So they’ll stamp it April one, but they will say marital status terminates June one, so that there is that six months. So during that six-month period of time, even though they’ve signed the papers, they’re not actually formally divorced. They’re not single.

Correct. They’re not single. They’ve signed the papers.

They’ve agreed on everything. It’s been submitted. They’re not single, but they have a contract, and that contract is expected to be followed.

The difference is they can’t get remarried until June 2nd. Right. Well, very interesting, and the twists and turns that relationships take.

If people have questions about their marital status and what do we do, and I’m not sure, and so forth, how can they be in touch with you? Well, they can reach us at 619-574-8000, and we will put them on the calendar for a free 30-minute phone consultation to see how we can help. Or you can reach out to us at www.primusfamilylaw.com, and there’s an info sheet you can fill out, and we’ll contact you that way. Bonnie, you’re a very aggressive, assertive, as people say, bulldog attorney, but you have a heart that’s warm and empathic and kind, and I suggest that if people want that compassion, that empathy, that kindness and understanding with someone who’s going to fight for them, be in touch with Primus Family Law Group.

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Bonnie, see you next time at another edition of Family Law Matters.