Contested Divorce Lawyer

A contested divorce is one in which the spouses are unable to come to an agreement to dissolve their marriage concerning various issues including; child custody, visitation, support, division of assets and property, allocation of debts, and alimony.

In these situations we can help by carefulty negotiating the issues that are most important to you. Through tactful yet aggressive bargaining, reasoning, and negotiating we can often help our clients to reach a favorable settlement. In many cases even a contested divorce is settled before trial.

The Contested Divorce Process in Massachusetts

If you think that you may be moving in the direction of a contested divorce some procedural steps in the process that lay ahead of you are as follows:

Filing the complaint– upon filing the complaint you have essentially commenced the action. The compliant will state the reason you are seeking a divorce.

Summons– The plaintiff must serve the complaint on the defendant by use of a summons. The summons essentially hails the defendant into court to answer the complaint.

Answer– The defendant should submit an answer either admitting or denying each count in the compliant.

Discovery– Each party must complete and file a financial statement . There are many forms of discovery (depositions, interrogatories, etc.) depending on the nature of your case.

Motions– Often throughout the process your attorney will appear before the tribunal to request some type of relief. Typical motions include temporary orders for support, custody, visitation, legal fees etc.

Pre trial Conference– The court holds a preliminary hearing to ensure that all proper measures in an effort to resolve the dispute are made. In a sense it is another attempt to settle the case before trial.

Trial– When all else fails the parties will go to trial. A divorce trial occurs when all other efforts of negotiating, collaborating, and reasoning have proved unsuccessful. At this point the parties, with their witnesses, offer testimony and exhibits of which the judge bases a final decision.

Get A Case Evaluation

At Cote Law, our aim is to always settle your issues by coming to a reasonable resolution in the most time efficient and professional manner. However, we recognize that in certain cases, this is not possible and we will fight hard for you at trial.

Attorney Cote offers a free case evaluation to better understand your contested divorce case and address some of your initial questions and concerns.

We can help you with your situation no matter what state your marriage is in. Contact us today for more information regarding your contested issues.