If you have been unexpectedly served divorce papers it can lead to emotional upheaval in your life. It can be a big blow especially when other couples might discuss the possibility of divorce for a few months at least. Instead of being overwhelmed, it is better that you immediately visit a family law firm in Canberra.

Have a lawyer at the Canberra family law firm go through the papers

It is necessary for a person to go over the divorce papers because these can contain a lot of information which you would need to inform your lawyer about. The divorce paper should also be shown to the lawyer so that they can have idea of the court where the action has been filed. This is all useful information to know whether the divorce is being filed in another state or if one of the spouses has been estranged from the other.

The divorce papers also comprises of the deadline by which a response is required. Plus the divorce papers also indicate whether the other party is doing the paper work on their own or if they have acquired the services of a lawyer. The divorce papers also contain information on the grounds of the divorce and additional requests. For example there might be several regarding child support or division of property.

The family lawyer will help you write down the response. The period to respond to the complaint of the petition for divorce is usually around 30 days starting from the day when the spouse has been served with the papers. Letting the deadline oass without responding will allow the other spouse to potentially receive everything that they have requested in the paper work.

The response to a divorce paper is through an attorney. However, if a person cannot come up with the funds necessary to hire a lawyer, then they may have to provide a response on their own. Not responding means that you have forfeited the rights to any sort of legal argument.

Divorce can be a difficult time in a person’s life so it is necessary to get the right kind of legal counsel if possible. Even if you are agreeing with all the clauses mentioned in the paper work it is still important that you have a family lawyer review the documents and allow them to tell you about your legal rights and options. It would be helpful if you later want to contest the case and you will have somebody who would be advocating on your behalf.

It will become necessary to hire a lawyer if your spouse has already done so. This will help prevent any problems later on, for example be able to retain a lawyer for a limited purpose of simply finding a response in the court would be helpful in the long run. It is important that you collect all the necessary documents before arriving for an initial consultation. The preliminary recruitments which are required include the ones which provide identification information such as birth certificate, marriage certificate and social security cards.

We recommend that you seek the legal assistance of Balance Family Law.