The state of Indiana refers to a divorce as a “dissolution of marriage” in its statutes, though both terms mean the same thing. The state is a no-fault divorce state, which means that the individual filing for divorce is not required to prove that anyone did anything wrong or is otherwise responsible for the dissolution of the marriage. Rather, the filing party could simply allege irreconcilable differences. The other spouse will not be able to prevent the filing party from requesting a divorce.

To get a divorce in Indiana, either you or your former spouse must live in Indiana for the six months preceding the filing. In addition, one of you must live in the county in which you file for the three months preceding the filing. There are two types of divorce: contested divorce and uncontested divorce. With an uncontested divorce, you and your former spouse both desire to divorce and either (1) have no assets to divide and no children, or (2) have already agreed upon how to divide assets and handle child custody and support.

This means the court does not need to do anything with your divorce case besides enter the divorce order. It will take a minimum of 60 days for the final order to be entered after the petition is filed. However, prior to the finalized order, there may be a “provisional” or “preliminary” hearing, during which the judge may enter a temporary order. Usually, these hearings are very brief and only if one party requests one.

With uncontested divorces, parties often settle property, debt, and child issues through written agreements. Even if you and your former spouse are willing to sit down and hash things out without involving a judge, you should hire an experienced divorce lawyer to help you draft a marital settlement agreement or child custody and support agreement to ensure that all important provisions are included and are legally sound. Dissolution agreements involving children will receive extra scrutiny from the court.

If the divorce is contested, however, the court will handle the division of assets and debts if you and your former spouse fail to arrive at an agreement through mediation or arbitration. The court presumes a division of assets and debts 50/50, though this process is complicated by several factors, including:

• Some property is not easily divisible in half, such as homes and cars
• ALL property and debt are marital, but not all property and debt are transferable
• A spouse may have a superior claim to or interest in a piece of property than the other spouse based upon a variety of factors
• Spouses may both be interested in property that is not divisible

A family lawyer in Indianapolis can help facilitate the process by working with the client to determine what their end goals are and what their interests are concerning the marital property and debts.

Marital property or community property is property that is jointly shared by the spouses during the marriage. When a couple weds, the assets and debts they acquire are jointly owned by them. Therefore, when divorcing, it makes most sense to cleanly divide this property, though, as discussed above, this is often a difficult and highly tumultuous process.