Uncontested Divorce, Long Island, NY

✓ Are you and your spouse in agreement on most of the issues you’ll have to resolve in your divorce?

✓ Do you want to get your divorce over-and-done with as quickly and inexpensively as possible?

✓ You may be a candidate for an Uncontested Divorce.

As a well-established Divorce and Family Law Firm, we have seen many different kinds of divorces and have helped different couples begin their paths to starting over. One of the fastest, least expensive, and lowest-stress methods of divorce is the Uncontested Divorce. An Uncontested Divorce is one in which the parties agree on all aspects of their divorce, such as child support and custody, maintenance and equitable distribution of marital assets.

As experienced Long Island Divorce Attorneys, we see many different kinds of divorces and have helped many different couples begin their paths to starting over through both Uncontested and Contested divorces. One way we are able to accomplish this is through our zealous advocacy during your Contested Divorce.

Protect Your Rights & Assets with an Experienced Divorce Attorney

In an Uncontested Divorce you and your spouse will have ironed out all the issues that will come up as a result of your decision to divorce. You may have all of these issues decided before you come to us, or you may have most of them decided and need some help resolving the last few. In either case, it is critical to your future that you have an experienced Long Island Divorce Attorney review the agreement to ensure that you are not getting taken advantage of and that you have protected yourself now, and in the future. This is a legal agreement that will bind the two of you and will have far-reaching implications for the rest of your life. Once your divorce is final, it’s very, very difficult to change.

The Role of Your Uncontested Divorce Attorney

As a divorce law firm that has handled countless divorce cases, we know there are certain issues that you and your spouse may not think of when you are ironing out your agreement among yourselves. These are typically issues that never occur to you, or believe to be unimportant or inapplicable to your situation. Nevertheless, these issues can come back to “bite you” if they are not addressed now. These issues can range from parent contributions for your children’s college to international travel with your ex-spouse, and innumerable others.

You Have a Right to be Happy & Have the Resources to Start Over

An Uncontested Divorce usually leads to a better post-divorce relationship with your spouse. This is particularly important if you and your spouse have children together. Many couples mistakenly believe that once their Divorce is finalized, they no longer have to be in contact with their former spouse. This is simply not true in cases involving children. You and your spouse will be involved in each other’s lives because of the children you share. If you and your spouse can reach an amicable agreement through an Uncontested Divorce, that co-parenting relationship becomes immediately more cooperative. Commencing your post-divorce life with your children becomes much easier when you have a spouse who is willing to cooperate with you.

How We Charge for Uncontested Divorce

Flat Fee

At our office, we typically request a flat fee when dealing with a completely Uncontested Divorce. You do not need to pay an hourly rate because Uncontested Divorces do not need to be argued, negotiated or brought to court. As such, you do not need to pay what can sometimes feel like overwhelming legal fees in order to pursue your divorce. This money can be put toward starting over and beginning your post-divorce life.

Mixed Fee

In other Uncontested Divorce cases that have a few minor issues remaining, we may charge a “Mixed Fee”. This would include the flat fee for the paperwork, and an hourly rate to resolve the other minor issues.

What Happens if My Spouse and I Disagree?

As discussed above, a true Uncontested Divorce is one in which there are no disagreements. If, however, you and your spouse end up on opposite sides of an issue and cannot come to an agreement, your matter will turn into a Contested Divorce.

Contested Divorce has come to be associated with a divorce litigated in a courtroom. Before you get to that point, however, there are other alternative dispute resolution options that have proven effective for many couples and are significantly less expensive, time-consuming and stressful. Two of these are Divorce Mediation and Collaborative Divorce.

Divorce Mediation

In cases where you and your spouse are amicable and willing to work toward resolving your issues in an open and honest way, Divorce Mediation offers a better way to end your marriage and move on with your life than litigating your divorce in court. Mediation is a private, voluntary process that helps you resolve the issues involved in ending your marriage without the time, stress and expense of litigation in court. Our experienced divorce mediators help guide you through this process without taking sides or imposing any decisions upon you or your spouse.

When you don’t have a completely Uncontested Divorce, Mediation can minimize the emotional and financial strain that often accompany other types of proceedings. Your divorce mediator will help you keep the process of ending your marriage from becoming adversarial and enable you to complete the process quickly, easily, inexpensively and with the least amount of stress on all the parties involved, including your children.

Click here to learn more about Long Island Divorce Mediation

Collaborative Divorce

You and your spouse may be good candidates to use a Collaborative Divorce attorney when you want to amicably separate or divorce and you can both agree to resolve your issues through mutual cooperation and negotiation rather than litigation.

Collaborative Divorce is an amicable resolution process through which you and your spouse separate or divorce without ever going to court. When you are both committed to resolving the complex issues involved through cooperation and negotiation, you can each be represented by an independent collaborative divorce attorney looking out for your best interests, but also committed to saving you the time, money and stress of going to court. You also have the opportunity to bring in other neutral collaborative divorce professionals such as financial analysts, mental health practitioners, divorce coaches, or child specialists, to aid in the process.

Click here to learn more about Long Island Collaborative Divorce

When All Else Fails, You’ll Need to Litigate

Whenever possible, we encourage couples to use the quickest, least expensive and lowest stress method of divorce that works for them. Of course, every couple and every divorce is completely unique. In complex divorces, or in those in which the spouses are on such opposite sides of the issues, it may be necessary to litigate your case in a courtroom. As such, it will run the progression of a Contested Divorce, including Settlement Conferences, Court Appearances and possibly a Trial.

You can be confident that we are not afraid of the word “trial”. If you interfere with our clients’ rights we will take you to court right away. There are many lawyers that claim to be trial attorneys, who rarely set foot in a courtroom. We are not one of those firms. We regularly take divorce cases to trial to get our clients the best outcome.

Read more about Contested Divorce here.

What Happens if My Uncontested Divorce Becomes Contested?

Unfortunately, occasionally, a client will come in believing that they have an Uncontested Divorce case. However, once begun, it becomes clear that there is less agreement on the issues between the spouses than initially thought. In these cases, we try to resolve the issues based upon the level of disagreement and contentiousness of each party using the methods described above. While some attorneys have been accused of making a divorce contentious, that is never our intention. We want you to resolve your divorce as quickly and painlessly as possible. More often, it is at least one of the parties themselves who turn the divorce adversarial by trying to take advantage of the other. We are committed to protecting the rights of our client.

We Are Committed to Protecting Your Rights & Assets and Helping You Move On With Your Life

As a firm that has been practicing divorce law for many years, and resolved both Uncontested and Contested divorces to the complete satisfaction of our clients, we have invaluable insight and experience that can help you with your Uncontested Divorce. We enjoy helping our clients move on with their lives in an efficient and cost-friendly manner, setting themselves up for a full and happy post-divorce life.