What is an Uncontested Divorce in North Carolina?
In North Carolina, in order to become legally divorced you must have been separated for at least a year. Then, you have to file a complaint for absolute divorce with the court and serve it on your spouse. Often a divorce complaint will also make claims for child custody, child support, alimony and property division. It is important to settle all property division and alimony issues prior to your absolute divorce filing or at least file these issues with the court at the same time as you file your complaint. This is because property division, or as it’s referred to in North Carolina, equitable distribution and alimony claims are lost (the court can’t decide or order them) once you have received your absolute divorce.
After you file your divorce complaint, one of two things can happen: First, your spouse could file an answer to your complaint disagreeing with what is in your complaint, and/or they could make additional counterclaims. When there is this disagreement among the parties the divorce becomes contested. It means that the two spouses have disagreements on at least one of the issues whether it be the date of separation or property division and they want to bring this to the attention of the court. Most of the time even contested divorces end up settling out of court, but there tend to be hearings and sometimes even a trial to decide certain issues.
The other option after you file your complaint is that the other person does not file an answer to your complaint after being properly served. This can happen for two reasons. The first reason this could happen is because they simply did not care enough or didn’t know they were supposed to file an answer. They have 30 days to respond to you divorce complaint and if they don’t, you will by default get your divorce. The second way this can happen is if the two of you already have a separation agreement in place and all of your divorce issues are already settled. Then, you could just file for absolute divorce and have an unincorporated settlement agreement apart from your court order or attach your settlement agreement to your complaint and have it incorporated into a court order. There are pros and cons to incorporating a settlement agreement, which depend on your specific situation. Since your spouse has already agreed to all of the divorce issues in the settlement agreement there is no reason for them to respond and you therefore have an uncontested divorce.
If you have any further questions about divorce, contact our office to set up a low-cost consultation at 980-225-1832 or Info@DuncanLarsonLaw.com.