Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

In Iowa, there is a 90-day waiting period between when the divorce is served on the Respondent and when the final decree can be entered. In some circumstances the waiting period can be waived. Beyond the timelines required by the court, the biggest influence on time is how many contested issues there are in your divorce and whether you will need to go to trial.

The short answer is yes. If you can hire an attorney, you should do so, even if that means you can only hire an attorney for a case review consultation. Our attorneys can take time to go over your specific situation with you and help you map out a plan for moving forward, even if you are not able to hire us for full representation.  We can also help you prepare documents that the court requires or prepare for a hearing.  Even if you have been representing yourself, you can book an appointment with one of our attorneys to review the final agreement or stipulation to make sure it is legally sound and in your best interests. For the cost of one attorney hour, you could potentially save yourself thousands of dollars. It always costs more in both time and money to correct mistakes than prevent them. We know that not everyone can afford full representation. However, it is well worth it to hire an attorney for as much assistance as you can afford.

Any money earned during the marriage is marital property. The wages you have set aside in a retirement account for when you are no longer able to work are still the property of the marriage if they were earned during the marriage. If some of the funds were earned before the marriage, there are formulas to determine what the marital share is.

In most states inheritance or gifts are not marital property. However, be aware that an inheritance or gift can become marital property, depending on how you use it. For instance, you receive an inheritance of $10,000 from your uncle. You deposit the money in a joint marital account. You don’t use it on anything specific, but instead as a cushion for unexpected expenses. It may be difficult to determine where that money went, and a court might find that it is inequitable to require the marriage to pay that money back to you.

There is no huge legal advantage to filing first. By filing first, you may be able to choose the venue if there is more than one appropriate venue (location) to file the divorce in. However, if you both live in the same county, there will likely be only one venue where the divorce can be filed. Depending on the law or local rules where you file, the person who files might have some choices in who presents evidence first in a trial or may have some additional control over the proceedings. A Greenberg Law attorney will know of any particular advantages in your local area, if any.

You will not give up any legal property rights to the marital home by moving out. However, be aware that judges, like rivers, will often take the path of least resistance. If you both want to keep the marital home, but you have not been living in it during the divorce process, the judge may order that your spouse keep the marital home. That being said, in some circumstances it may be well worth moving out, even if that means you will not get to keep the marital home, especially if you feel unsafe or there is constant fighting. If you do not get to keep the home, you will still get an equal or equitable share of the marital property depending on your state’s law.

The cost of your divorce will depend on several things. Your location greatly influences the cost. The hourly rate attorneys in your area charge will be relative to the cost of living in the area. For instance, a divorce in California, like the overall cost of living, will cost more than a divorce in Iowa.

Other differences in your state laws might influence the amount of work and time needed for a divorce, which will also influence the cost. Within your state and local jurisdiction, the next biggest factor is whether the divorce is contested. You can save money if you and your spouse have already decided on the terms of your divorce and only need an attorney to draft documents. However, you can lose more money than you save if you settle for something that is not equitable just because you want to save money on attorney fees.

If you and your spouse have minor children together, the divorce will cost more both in time and money.

The attorneys chosen by you and your spouse will obviously be a factor in the total cost, not only because of their hourly fees but because of their style of practice. One attorney may increase the cost significantly by filing unnecessary pleadings or by not responding to the other
attorney in a timely way.

Conversely, how you and the other party proceed as clients will also influence the bottom line. If either party contacts their attorney several times a week, obviously the divorce costs will go up for both parties. Or, if either party is unresponsive, causing the attorneys to reach out
multiple times for each issue, the bill will go up.

The type of divorce you choose will also influence the cost, but it can also help keep other factors in check by regulating the type and frequency of communication going back and forth between the attorneys. For instance, if you are in a collaborative divorce with regularly scheduled meetings, the parties and attorneys are less likely to reach out in between meetings because they know they can bring up issues during the meeting.

Check in your local area for free, reduced, or sliding scale legal services. You can start with the local bar associations. These are organizations of attorneys who practice in a particular location. There may be a county bar association and a state bar association where you live. Some bar associations have projects or clinics where lawyers volunteer their services to assist clients who can’t afford to pay. These are often called Volunteer Lawyers Projects. Even if they can’t help you directly, the local bar association should know what resources are available in your
area.

I do not recommend calling attorneys and asking them to represent you for free. As professionals, it is expected of us to do a certain amount of volunteer or pro bono work (pro bono means for the good). However, many attorneys do that work through state or county run volunteer lawyers projects, where the intake assessment of clients has already been done and there may be access to funds to cover expenses and filing fees. Other attorneys prefer to do their pro bono work in legal clinics that might be run by a school or other agency for a specific legal purpose.

Other attorneys may prefer to do their pro bono work in areas of law the do not usually practice in. If you set up a consultation just to ask for free services, you are wasting the attorney’s time and your own. 

When a judge has signed and filed your Decree of Dissolution of Marriage, you are divorced. If you look up your Decree of Dissolution of Marriage, there is a date stamped at the top of page one that indicates when it was filed.