Even if you wish to obtain the peace of resolving custody, child support, alimony, division of property, and visitation, you and your spouse may not be able to come to an agreement to finalize such matters. The attorneys at The Law Offices of Betty Nguyen Davis are experienced and aggressive attorneys who will provide quality representation on your behalf in a contested divorce matter. When you are contemplating the filing of a contested divorce, it is imperative that you select an attorney who you trust and who will competently represent you. You want an attorney who not only knows Georgia family law, but who has also argued before judges in Atlanta metro counties and is familiar with how those judges have ruled on the law in the past. The attorneys at The Law Offices of Betty Nguyen Davis have practiced before judges in the Atlanta metro counties, including Fulton, Dekalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Cherokee, and Clayton counties.

The filing of a divorce complaint is the first step in several stages of a divorce proceeding that ultimately leads to an order from a judge granting your divorce. A divorce can be finalized through agreement by the parties or by a trial in front of a judge or a jury. When our attorneys represent the plaintiff in a divorce proceeding, we carefully draft the complaint to ask the court for all of the relief to which you could be entitled, including rights to property, custody, child support, alimony, and visitation. After the complaint for divorce is filed, the complaint must be served upon the opposing party. We normally serve the complaint on your spouse by using a private process server rather than a sheriff’s deputy to avoid causing embarrassment to your spouse. We have found that this approach keeps the lines of negotiation open and helps the parties work toward an amicable resolution. If you have been served with a divorce complaint, it is imperative that you file an answer within the required time in order to preserve your rights. The attorneys at The Law Offices of Betty Nguyen Davis are qualified to assist you with properly answering a divorce complaint and preserving your rights to division of property, visitation, child custody, alimony, and child support.

After the complaint and answer are both filed, a period of time referred to as discovery begins. Discovery gives the parties the opportunity to obtain information regarding finances and other personal information related to your divorce proceeding from the other side. Discovery requests can be directed to the other side in the form of written questions or orally in a transcribed interview known as a deposition. Further, you can even request that the opposing party produce certain financial and marital documents. The discovery process can last a few weeks or several months. The length of process depends on whether the parties are interested in settling, the complexity of the parties’ financial circumstances, or the depth of the parties, and the depth of issues related to child custody, support, and visitation.

Because discovery can be lengthy and expensive, courts will allow the parties to have a temporary hearing to provide relief during the pendency of the divorce process. A temporary hearing is a special hearing where the judge will address undecided issues such as temporary custody, the temporary payment of child support, the temporary payment of alimony, the temporary payment of marital bills, and the temporary use of the marital home or vehicles. This hearing is not intended to finalize all of the parties’ issues but will assist the parties in living their everyday lives while they are involved in the litigation of their divorce.

If the parties are not able to come to an amicable resolution of their divorce, there will be a final hearing or trial before a judge or a jury. A final hearing allows the parties to present the facts of the divorce to a judge or jury in order to obtain a final decision on issues such as division of property, visitation, child support or alimony. The hearing can take a few hours or several days. After all issues are resolved, an order granting the divorce is entered. A contested divorce can last years or a couple of months. The cost can be hundreds of thousands of dollars or less than ten thousand dollars. The cost and length of a divorce are typically directly related and depend largely on the complexities of the issues in the divorce and the parties’ ability to agree. To schedule a free consultation with an attorney, please call The Law Offices of Betty Nguyen Davis at (404) 593-2620.