How long does a divorce take in Shepherdsville and Bullitt County, Kentucky? Multiple factors will affect the time and cost of your divorce. Here are some important things to know:
- A divorce cannot be completed until every issue in the final divorce decree is completely resolved
- The ability of each former spouse to work through these issues and reach an agreement is one of the key factors in determining how long the process will take and how much it will cost.
- Both spouses owe an important legal duty to one another, a “fiduciary duty,” the responsibility to act in the other’s best interests until the date the divorce is finalized. Any attempt to hide or misrepresent information, money, income, asset valuation, or accounts can and will result in substantial legal and financial sanctions.
- The Judge in your case will carefully observe everything you say and write, and how you handle yourself in and out of Court. The Judge must ultimately resolve any issue(s) the parties cannot agree upon. Therefore, each party’s credibility before the Court will be important at every step of the process, especially in terms of child custody and visitation, as well as financial disputes.
- Multiple studies across many years have shown that former spouses are much more likely to abide by agreements they’ve participated in (i.e., negotiations/mediation) when compared to those imposed upon them when a Judge is required to ultimately decide a matter. This will affect not only the time and cost of your divorce but also the likelihood of disputes and further expense to resolve them in the months and years after your divorce is completed.
- Child custody and visitation in Kentucky are rooted in the principle of “the best interests of the child.” Kentucky Family Law provides a rebuttable presumption that it is in every child’s best interest to spend equal quality time with both parents. This is a good starting point for custody and visitation conversations.
How long does a divorce take if the parties are mostly in agreement on all important issues? Kentucky law requires a “Separation Period” of 60 days prior to the finalization of the divorce. This doesn’t mean either party needs to move out, provided the parties have stopped living as spouses and are not having sexual relations. One of the spouses must have lived in Kentucky for at least 180 days. Therefore, the shortest period is around 2 to 3 months from the filing date if the parties are genuinely in complete agreement regarding every item in the final divorce decree. If the wife is pregnant, the couple will have to wait until the child is born in order to make sure custody and support matters for the child(ren) are in place.
My name is John Schmidt, and after more than 25 years of experience as a divorce and family law attorney based in Shepherdsville, I understand the nature of this question. I also understand the decisions you make during your divorce will impact the quality of your life for the next several years. It’s important to protect the things that are most important to you and approach important discussions and decisions without a lot of emotion (although divorce is obviously an inherently emotional process for many). Emotional decisions are rarely good decisions.
We’ve had divorce cases completed in a few months, cases that required a few years, and everything in between. How long does a divorce take in Shepherdsville and Bullitt County, Kentucky? The answer depends upon your ability to resolve every aspect of your divorce, including the characterization and division of property/assets/liabilities, as well as retirement accounts and pensions, child custody, visitation and support matters, and spousal support/maintenance.
As your advocate, I work to help you move through the emotions of a given situation so that you can look at the issues from a stronger perspective in order to analyze each decision more clearly. I work to find common ground to help create and encourage a cooperative environment for resolution and to frankly keep costs down.
I can work with you to identify alternatives to any bottleneck or challenge and help you move through the system more efficiently and cost-effectively. Let’s discuss the individual circumstances of your case and evaluate the options of mediation, private judges, and other tools to keep costs down and move this process to a successful conclusion in the shortest possible timeframe while protecting your goals and objectives.
We invite you to contact us via e-mail, schedule an appointment or call us today at (502) 509-1490 to get answers to your questions and to learn more about your unique circumstances and how to protect what is most important to you in your family law case.
