Online Divorce in Alabama: Documents Preparation
The divorce process is not the most pleasant event in anyone’s life. Still, when you need to go through a divorce procedure, it would be good to do so with minimal stress. So, when you apply for divorce, you definitely do not want to waste long months in the courtroom or all your money on attorneys. But can you get a fast and cheap divorce in Alabama?
Fortunately, online divorce in Alabama is a reality since it is quite possible to get divorce help online nowadays. If you decide to divorce online in Alabama, you save your time and money since you only need to complete the paperwork and file it on your own. Of course, online divorce in Alabama is more suitable for full-agreement uncontested cases. So, it is advisable to agree on all the issues with your spouse before you get your Alabama online divorce.
Our paperwork preparation service helps to make the first step in online divorce in Alabama. We assist in preparing divorce documents online so that you only need to sign them and file them with your local court. Since online divorce in Alabama is much cheaper than the prolonged process with an expensive attorney, our online divorce service saves you thousands of dollars by charging only $139 for a full package of case-specific forms already filled out for you. When you get them, you will only need to file for your online divorce in Alabama by following our comprehensive instructions on the process.
So, let’s see what you need to get a divorce online in Alabama.
Grounds for Divorce in Alabama
To have your marriage dissolved, you need to state one of the legal grounds for divorce in Alabama in your Divorce Complaint. In Alabama, you can file for both no-fault and at-fault divorce, with different grounds available for each type.
No-Fault Grounds for Divorce in Alabama
- Irretrievable breakdown of the marriage;
- Complete incompatibility.
Fault-Based Grounds for Divorce in Alabama
- Adultery;
- Imprisonment;
- Abandonment;
- Substance addiction;
- Crime against nature;
- Violent inclinations;
- Physical and incurable incapacity to enter into the marriage state;
- Hopeless and incurable mental illness;
- Husband’s inability to support the wife for two years while living separately;
- Wife’s pregnancy without husband’s knowledge or control.
Both no-fault and fault-based legal grounds for divorce in Alabama are stipulated in Alabama Code § 30-2-1. If you are filing based on the irretrievable breakdown ground and are in full agreement with your spouse, you will be able to get a do-it-yourself divorce in Alabama.
Divorce Papers in Alabama: What Forms Do You Need to File
The number and type of papers for divorce depend on the kind of divorce you pursue. In uncontested marriage dissolution, you will require a minimal and relatively easy divorce papers package. If your case involves children and marital property that needs to be divided, their list will be a bit longer.
The basic set of divorce papers in Alabama includes:
A starting form that presents grounds for divorce, information about the couple, the marriage, and the marriage dissolution, including possible agreements and requests regarding property and children (if any).
Serves to support the information provided in the Complaint.
Should be filed by the defendant to respond to the Complaint served by the plaintiff to testify their agreement to divorce and service acceptance.
Filled out by the plaintiff is signed by the judge to finalize the divorce.
An obligatory form that must be filed in all the cases related to domestic relations and child support.
Another document that provides detailed information about the spouses, their marriage, and divorce for the Office of Vital Statistics.
You will likely need to find these Alabama divorce forms online if you have children under 19:
- Child-Support-Obligation Income Statement/Affidavit provides detailed information about both parents’ incomes and expenses. A separate document should be filed by each party.
- Child-Support Guidelines is a document that helps to calculate the potential child support payment.
- Child-Support Guidelines Notice of Compliance confirms that the child support amounts calculated in other forms are correct.
- Income Withholding for Support form is signed by the judge to order the withholding of child support amount from the paying party’s income.
If you are wondering how to get divorce papers in Alabama online without having to search for the right set of documents yourself, you are on the right page! For a moderate price, we will select and fill in the needed divorce forms in Alabama online that you can use for online divorce application. Besides, apart from getting cheap divorce papers online, you will receive detailed instructions on how to start filing for divorce, what to do before filing for divorce, and what happens after you file for divorce.
Compare Your Options for Filing for Divorce in Alabama
A contested divorce usually requires hiring lawyers. Although such a specialist can help you navigate a difficult process and turn it to your advantage, it also entails certain challenges:
- High lawyer’s fees charged per hour
- Incompatibility with the lawyer's schedule
- Additional disputes that may arise in the process
- Overstretched hearings
- Strained environment in the courtroom
- Added stress caused by the listed issues
With paperwork preparation service, you avoid the challenges typical for other options. At our user-friendly platform, we offer:
- Full package of Alabama divorce papers online
- Court-approved forms
- Affordable price
- 24/7 support
- Case and state-specific divorce papers online
- Instructions on steps to file for divorce
A do-it-yourself divorce in Alabama may be the cheapest way to file for divorce. However, it is also fraught with a range of difficulties for the couple:
- Unawareness of legal terms and processes
- Difficulty in finding the right divorce forms in Alabama online
- An unexpected and undesirable outcome caused by a single negligent mistake in filling out the documents
- Additional costs and time in case of a missed signature or delayed submission of documents
How to Fill out Alabama Divorce Papers
Before filing for divorce in Alabama online, you need to fill out papers accurately and attentively. A slight mistake or erroneously checked box can make your efforts of easy divorce filing futile, and you will be forced to start the entire process afresh.
Therefore, your first step in filing for divorce should be ensuring that you know how to fill out divorce papers yourself and find the right ones in the first place:
- You can find Alabama divorce papers online, but not all of them are suitable for your case. Therefore, it is important to check which forms are obligatory and have to be filed no matter the case. Getting a divorce with minor children, check if you have forms covering custody, support, visitations, and any other matters related to your kids.
- When you file for divorce in Alabama online, there may be forms used specifically in your county. After you have your main set of papers in order, contact the clerk to inquire about getting county-specific divorce papers in Alabama online.
- Be sure to avoid the fields that have to be completed by the clerk, a potentially-hired attorney, or a notary. If the document has to be signed by the notary, it is very likely they have to be present when you sign the paper.
- The most important rule for filling out papers when you file for divorce in Alabama online is precision. If you miss some details, answer some questions inaccurately, or check the wrong box, you may fail to get what you desire in terms of child custody and support, alimony, and property division.
- The judge will not accept paperwork completed with mistakes. Putting the name of the country instead of the county or having typos and misspellings may seem minor to some, but it is taken seriously by the court. Therefore, reread your answers before you file.
- When you file for divorce in Alabama online, you will need to provide the original and two copies of all the documents to the clerk. However, the rules may differ from court to court, so make sure to check the local rules for the number of copies needed.
The best way to file for divorce is to ensure that you have a no-fault uncontested case and undergo the procedure on your own, without the involvement of lawyers and the need to pay them high fees. However, when you file for divorce online, you must be sure that you gather the right forms and fill them in accurately to prevent yourself from extra trouble, time-wasting, and expenses.
How to Get a Divorce in Alabama without a Lawyer
You can file for divorce without an attorney if you pursue an uncontested divorce in Alabama. In addition to that, to file for a divorce without a lawyer, you and your spouse have to be able to agree on all the issues concerning your marriage dissolution.
While some people resort to a DIY divorce in Alabama in such cases, most find it hard to deal with the forms and the filing process on their own. Another option for a divorce without a lawyer is to use a paperwork preparation service like ours. With us, you get Alabama divorce forms online for a moderate price after completing only a few simple steps. We also offer detailed instructions on how to file for divorce in Alabama online so that you never feel alone or confused in the process.
Whichever option you decide to pursue, it is important to know some of the state laws concerning the process and related issues when looking for ways of how to get a divorce in Alabama without a lawyer.
Residency Requirement
According to Alabama divorce laws, the couple can file for divorce at any time if either the defendant or both spouses live in the state. If only the plaintiff is the resident, they must have lived in Alabama for a minimum of six months prior to filing a petition.
Grounds
To file for a divorce without a lawyer, you should aim at pursuing an uncontested full-agreement divorce. In this case, only no-fault grounds are acceptable, which are complete incompatibility or irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.
Property Division
In Alabama, the property is distributed equitably, which does not mean equally though. Planning on how to file for divorce by yourself and divide your possessions, you need to understand what you and your spouse are entitled to. Separate property, which was acquired by either spouse before the marriage or after separation, inherited, or received as a gift, is not divided unless there are sufficient grounds to do it. Marital property that was obtained during the marriage is divided on just and equitable grounds. In contested cases, the judge considers the marriage duration, marital fault, and the parties’ needs and opportunities to distribute assets fairly.
Child Custody
Custody can be either joint, when both parents have the right to make legal decisions and physically take care of their kids, or sole, which means that only one parent has the upper hand in all decisions while another one only has visitation rights.
If the parties cannot agree on custody matters, the court will make a decision in the children’s best interests. Although joint custody is more preferable for the Alabama courts, it will consider issues like parents’ agreement/disagreement, cooperation, and relations with children, possible history of abuse, spouses’ proximity to each other, and any other factors that it deems relevant when making the decision.
Child Support
Child support is the amount that one parent needs to pay the other to support children financially. In Alabama, it is calculated in accordance with the income shares model, considering the number of children, their needs, and both spouses’ gross income as stipulated in the formula provided in the Alabama Child Support Guidelines. When the parties are unable to agree on this issue on their own, the court will determine the amounts and other terms at the hearings in a contested divorce.
Alimony
Alimony is the financial support that one spouse should pay to the other. Its aim is not to punish one of the parties but to help the lower-earning one in maintaining reasonable living standards, at least close to the ones established during the marriage.
The court will decide the type, amount, and duration of alimony if the parties are unable to agree on their own. The decision is made on the basis of § 30-2-51 in the Alabama Code.
When people ask, “can you file for divorce without a lawyer?”, we answer, “Yes, filing for divorce in Alabama without a lawyer is quite possible if spouses are able to agree on all the issues on their own.” So, if you wonder how to get divorced without an attorney, consider getting an uncontested divorce in Alabama. This will save you a lot of time and money and prevent excessive stress.
Moreover, you can get a cheap divorce in Alabama without having to do everything on your own. With the forms and instructions you receive from our service, you will be more than ready to file for divorce in Alabama online.
Do-It-Yourself Divorce in Alabama
A do-it-yourself divorce in Alabama is a marriage dissolution option requiring you to figure out the processes of finding and filing divorce papers yourself. While it is a major task to undertake, you can successfully cope with Alabama online divorce with enough guidance.
Here is a short description of how to file your own divorce papers in a DIY divorce in Alabama:
- Marital agreement. Discuss and agree with your spouse on all the issues concerning property, debts, and children. Draft a marital agreement that would outline all the terms, duties, and responsibilities as you see fit. Later, you will present it to the judge together with other forms. If they approve your agreement, it will become a part of the Final Judgment.
- Complete the paperwork. As the spouse who initiates a marriage dissolution, you should determine where to get divorce papers in Alabama online. You may try a route of searching for court-approved and up-to-date forms and spending at least a few days completing the paperwork. The easiest and fastest alternative to that would be getting divorce forms in Alabama online from our trusted service.
- File the papers with the court. When the paperwork is completed, you should file it with the clerk’s office in the local circuit court. File the documents in the county where the defendant lives, where you live if your spouse is not a resident, or where you lived together previously. You should also pay a filing fee, which may depend on the county or even on the court.
- Serve the papers on your spouse. When you get the time-stamped copies of your documents from the clerk, you need to serve them on the other party through the private process server, the sheriff’s office, or any other authorized person above the age of 18. The defendant has 30 days to answer the Complaint for Divorce.
- Wait 30 days. Before making the final decision, the court imposes a 30-day waiting period for online divorce in Alabama from the day the Complaint was filed. As soon as it is over, the judge will examine your case and make the final decision. It should be noted that it will not necessarily happen instantly. A lot depends on the court’s caseload and the judge’s availability. Besides, if the judge does not agree with something after having reviewed your paperwork, you may be asked to redo it, or a hearing may be scheduled.
- Attend a hearing. In case some issues are disputable or questionable in the judge’s view, they will schedule a hearing that you must attend. Offer your evidence in support of your position and answer the questions you may be asked. Generally, it is better to check with the local court clerk if there will be a hearing on your case.
- Get the final judgment. If the paperwork is in order and the judge has no objections or questions to the divorcing couple, they can sign the Final Judgment of Divorce and finalize your marriage.
While DIY divorce in Alabama has become a commonly chosen marriage dissolution option, learning how to file your own divorce may seem a bit confusing or even challenging. The biggest challenge is in getting the right forms and filling them out properly. In such cases, our paperwork preparation service can help with completing suitable documents for your do-it-yourself divorce in Alabama.
Our clients come to us with questions: “how to file for a divorce in Alabama online?”, “can you get divorce papers online?” and “can I file for divorce myself?” We answer by offering our service of filling in the papers that suit their individual situation. After they have completed our simple online questionnaire, the system analyzes their answers, selects the right forms for their case, and fills them out. In addition, we provide them with comprehensive step-by-step instructions on the filing process for DIY divorce in Alabama.
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FAQ
To get divorced in Alabama, you may hire a lawyer to represent you in court, undergo a do-it-yourself online divorce in Alabama, or make use of a paper preparation service to get divorce forms in Alabama online and file with the court on your own.
Alabama laws do not make any provisions for the mandated separate living to file for divorce in the state.
If you and your spouse agree on the divorce and have had all your disputes resolved, you can file for an uncontested online divorce in Alabama without a lawyer.
Yes, it is absolutely possible to divorce online in Alabama during pregnancy. However, the process under such circumstances can be much longer, more complex, and somewhat incomplete, so it is best to consult with a lawyer in this case.
To start the divorce process in Alabama, you need to file the Divorce Complaint along with some other starting forms with the clerk in the court of the county where either you or your spouse resides.