Divorce Support Forums: Do I need to show up for court?

You want to check the rules in your local court. Uncontested usually means that the other side has decided it's not worth the bother to show up. It's what I would consider a dangerous position to take, though... because you never know when someone is going to go into court and say all kinds of wacky stuff (lies) that will change what you THOUGHT the divorce was going to be all about... you know, stuff like that you stole money from them or abuse the kids or ... well... it kind of depends upon circumstnaces...

I can't tell you how often we've heard people saying, "I've been scre...d" when what happened was that they trusted their ex to do the right thing and ended up having thousands garnished from thier salaries and they couldn't do a THING about it because they chose not to contest the divorce and that's part of the risk of not showing up in court.

There ARE people who do this and do NOT get hurt by it... but even if only one in a hundred has nasty surprises. it's bad enough that it's worth showing up.

One other possibility instead of "uncontested", is that you enter a "stipulated" agreement, meaning that you both agree, you both sign it, it was officially "contested" but that you've come to a settlement and so there's no need for a trial or anything.

Check out your local rules for "stipulated" agreeemnts as well as "uncontested", and if thre's a possibility for you to enter a "stiuplated" one where you dont' have to come to court, that's the one where you are most likely to be protected against the one in a hundred chance that he'll ask for something you didn't expect him to ask for in an "uncontested" hearing.

Does that make sense or have I totally confused you?