You may be thinking about starting the divorce process on your own without an attorney. If so, we’d like to run you through the steps of filing a divorce petition, in hopes of making your work a little easier.
Steps for Filing a Divorce Petition
1. The first thing you will want to do is visit the Utah courts’ online assistance program by clicking here. Fill out the form for the divorce petition.
2. After you have completed the divorce petition through OCAP, print it out, review it, and sign it. Make a copy for you and you can give the original to the court.
3. After you have the divorce petition completed, take it to your nearest district court located in the county where you reside, find the office of the clerk of the court, and hand the petition to the clerk and let them know you are filing a divorce petition. the clerk will ask you for a $310 filing fee which you can pay by card, check, or cash.
4. You should also fill out a vital statistics form and file it along with the petition. The clerk will charge you an $8 filing fee for the vital statistics form.
5. After you file the petition for divorce with your county district court, the clerk will let you know what your case number is and who is the assigned commissioner and judge to your case. You should include the case number, name of the judge, and name of the commissioner on every court paper you file thereafter.
6. Next, fill out a summons. A summons is a documents that requires your spouse to file an answer to your divorce petition.
7. Next, you need to serve your spouse with the summons and divorce petition. You can do this through a process serving company or anybody else who is over 18 years old. The process server or other person who will serve the papers needs to do so personally by handing the documents to your spouse.
8. Once your spouse has been served with the divorce petition and summons he will have 20 days to file an answer to the petition. If he does not respond within that time you can ask for a default judgment.
Salcido Law Firm Makes this Process Easy
Want to avoid having to work your way through the steps described above? Give us a call at 801.413.1753 for a free divorce consultation. We’ll take care of everything so that you don’t have to.
