Hello. Have you ever wondered how to get a
legal separation? If so, I have some tips
for you. I'm Dr. Felicia, and I've worked
with different custody issues and divorce
situations for many years. Legal separation
is relatively easy to acquire if for instance
there's no minors involved. If there are no
minors, you can do what's considered a pro
se divorce dissolution of marriage. And your
forms are usually held at your local courthouse
within your community. So you can go down
there, and they usually come with a packet
that you purchase the forms and then you have
instructions on how to file it. If you and
your ex-spouse, or soon to be ex-spouse are
on amenable terms, and you can communicate,
it usually can be done in a pretty rapid amount
of time. When there's minor involved, it gets
a little bit more complicated to get a legal
separation. Usually you have to go through
lawyers, and you will have to get that legal
separation. There's good and bad about that,
it's done right, it's expediated. However,
you should know that in different states the
jurisdiction is different. And a legal separation
is required, for instance, in the Washington
D.C. District there has to be a year trial
separation, or legal separation. So that kind
of postpones things. The concept behind that,
is that after a year a couple works out their
issues, and they usually cool off, and marriages
are saved. In other states you can do it in
60 days, in other states 90 days, so it varies,
check with your attorney. If you have children
involved, the separation process is a time
to learn new parenting skills, how to parent
as a divorced parent. You're usually required
to go to parenting classes, and that gets
a little bit more complicated. And those are
requirements of the entire legal separation
process leading to the divorce. I do wish
you luck, whether you do it yourself without
children, or whether you go through an attorney.
Good luck. Dr. Felicia here. Bye now.
