No divorce without separation: A marriage can usually only be divorced if the year of separation has been completed beforehand. For 12 months, the spouses have to live “separately from table and bed” to prove that the marriage really can no longer be saved.
Requirements: When can you get a divorce?
According to law, marriage is an asset worthy of protection. Accordingly, you cannot spontaneously file for divorce if a major dispute arises. Instead, the marriage must be seen as a failure and beyond salvage.
To prove that this is the case, you must first complete the year of separation. To do this, you have to live and work “separately from table and bed” for a year. The easiest way to do this is to keep contact to a minimum if you or your current partner moves out of the shared apartment and keep contact to a minimum. In principle, you can also spend the year of separation in the marital home: However, make sure you manage separately. Divide the rooms and only use the common areas together. In the end, the court must have no doubts that your marriage is about to end.
Once you have paid the costs, the family court begins its work. First, it sends your current partner the divorce application in the form of a yellow letter. This letter contains a deadline before which your partner must comment on the divorce application. They have three options:
Agree to divorce: If your counterpart agrees to the divorce, this is referred to as an amicable divorce. The court can then set a divorce date, and with a bit of luck, you can draw a line under it in 3 to 6 months.
Reject divorce: It is a contentious divorce if your partner does not agree to the divorce. You then have to explain your reasons for the divorce to the court in detail, prolonging the whole process. If there are further discrepancies between the parties, the procedure can easily last up to 3 years.
Filing your application for divorce: Your counterpart also has the option of filing their application for divorce in response to your application for divorce. This has the following advantage: If you, as the original applicant, change your mind, the divorce can still be completed.
Pension equalization
Shortly after that, or simultaneously, the court will also send you and your current partner the forms for the pension equalization. This is a procedure in which the pension entitlements of the two partners are divided fairly between them. For example, those who stayed at home for a longer period to look after the children could accumulate fewer pension entitlements and are granted pension entitlements from their partner as part of the pension equalization.
Once you and your partner have filled out the forms, the court will forward them to the pension insurance institutions. The exact pension entitlements – i.e., the acquired pension entitlements – are then calculated there.
Although you and your partner can agree to waive the pension rights adjustment, the court does not have to abide by this agreement. Suppose the court determines that a waiver would lead to a massive disadvantage for a spouse, Alabama uncontested divorce attorneys can still order the pension equalization.
