If There’s No Minor Children, It’s Only 10 Days. but If There Are Kids Involved, Then It Is a 90-Day Waiting Period
Video Transcribed:
What is the waiting period to get a divorce with minor children in Oklahoma? I’m Tulsa attorney James Wirth and I’m answering frequently asked questions regarding family law issues in Oklahoma.
And that is the question is, “How long must we wait to get divorced if there’s minor children involved in the marriage?” And yes, Oklahoma does have timeframes that you must wait.
If there’s no minor children, it’s only 10 days. But if there are kids involved, then it is a 90-day waiting period. And that 90 days begins when the petition is filed with the court.
So, you get your paperwork together, you file that petition, the clock starts. Once that 90 days is up, a final order, divorce can be entered if an agreement is reached, or if the judge decides the issue finally. In practice, it takes longer than 90 days to get a final order if there’s not an agreement.
So, as you go through the court process in a contested matter for temporary orders, discovery, mediation, pre-trial, and trial, that’s going to last longer than 90 days anyway. So this waiting period is more applicable to Oklahoma agreed divorces.
If you do have an agreement, then you can get the divorce decree entered as soon as that 90 days is up.
You can get it on the agreed divorce docket, give a little bit of testimony to the judge and get that entered.
And in cases that we handle for agreed divorces involving minor children, most of the time we like to enter temporary orders, because 90 days is a long time to wait. We got parties that are getting along and making decisions for the best interest of their kids.
We like to memorialize those in an order and if we can’t do it in a final decree, we do it in a temporary order. That’s in place until it’s superseded by the final decree. So that may be a good idea for your circumstances, depending on your specifics.
If you’ve got questions about your specific circumstances, you’re going to want to talk to a Tulsa family attorney. If you want to talk to somebody at my office, go to makelaweasy.com.
