To file for divorce in Waukesha County, you must be a resident for at least 30 days. You will need to file a summons, petition, and confidential petition addendum with the Waukesha County Clerk, pay a filing fee and serve your spouse. There is a 120 day mandatory wait time before the final hearing.
Filing for a Joint divorce means that you and your spouse will start and file the divorce together. Waukesha county compiles necessary paperwork for filing jointly into a packet that can either be downloaded for free or purchased from the Family Court Self-Help Center.
1.) Once you obtain the appropriate forms for a Joint divorce, the forms must be completed and filed in the correct order. You shouldn’t fill out all the forms in the packet at once, because only certain forms are due at certain points in time, and if completed too soon, parties may have to redo a form that was completed too early. Each form comes with a detailed checklist and instructions, but if there are still questions about a form or procedure, you may contact the Family Division and a customer service rep will try to assist. Parties should complete the forms in black ink if filling them out by hand.
a. The Petitioner is the party starting and filing the divorce/legal separation
b. The Respondent is the spouse
c. Joint Petitioners are parties that start and file the divorce together
2.) Paperwork needed for filing Jointly: Joint petitions, Confidential Petition Addendum. The joint petition is a formal request to the court for a divorce or legal separation. This form provides basic information about the parties, if they have met all lawful requirements to request a divorce, and tells the judge what relief is requested. The Confidential Petition Addendum allows the court to collect required social security numbers and keep them sealed from the public.
3.) Consider the need for a Temporary Order hearing. Temporary Order hearings are needed if you and your spouse cannot come to an agreement on any of the following issues:
a. Child Custody / Placement
b. Child Support
c. Use of the family residence over the course of the divorce
d. Use of Automobiles or other personal property
e. Payment of bills
f. Payment of Maintenance
The agreements made in a temporary hearing order will stay in place until a permanent order is established. If both you and your spouse CAN agree on these issues informally, you do not need to file a temporary order and can skip this step entirely. If you need the temporary order hearing, but can come to an agreement on these issues, you may write your agreements on a Stipulation for Temporary Order form to request that the Family Court Commissioner make your agreements an order of the court. Once signed by the Family Court Commissioner, the stipulation must be followed until the divorce is granted or there is a new order of the court. If you CANNOT agree on the above issues, either party may request to have the Family Court Commissioner make decisions for them at a Temporary Hearing. To do this, file the Order to Show Cause and Affidavit for Temporary Order.
4.) Once all necessary forms to start the action are completed, you and your spouse may take them to the Family Division room C-112, Mon-Fri between 8:30 and 4:00 to have them reviewed for completeness and copied if necessary (There is a fee of $.25 per page copied). Once the forms have been filed, it is at this point that a case number and judge are assigned to the case. All future documents that need to be completed must have a case number on them.
5.) When filing jointly, serving the other party is not required unless you or your spouse files the Affidavit and Order to Show Cause for Temporary Order, in which case whoever files needs to also serve their spouse and obtain a Proof of Service.
6.) Unless one of the parties requested a Temporary Hearing, Joint Petitioners do not need to do anything more until they receive the Notification of the Pre-Trial Conference and the Pre-Trial Order from the court. This will contain the date of the first hearing, which can be set no sooner than 120 days from the date the action was filed. With this, you will also receive specific orders from the court for how to prepare for the hearing.
7.) If you have minor children at the time of the divorce, both you and your spouse are required by law to complete the Helping Children Cope with Divorce seminar. Information on this seminar will arrive with the Notice of Pre-Trial Conference, Pre-Trial Order, and Pre-Trial Conference date.
8.) Before the Pre-Trial Conference, you and your spouse must complete a Financial Disclosure Statement, which can be downloaded from the website for free, or requested from the Court Self-Help Center. This needs to be filed with the court no later than 10 days before the Pre-Trial Conference.
9.) If both parties are satisfied that the other has fully disclosed their finances, they should complete the Marital Settlement Agreement.
10.) If the parties have completed and signed the Marital Settlement Agreement by the date of the Pre-Trial Conference and the judge approves the agreement, the court may grant the divorce. If so, there will be no trial.
11.) After the Pre-Trial Conference, prepare the “Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Judgement” (FFCLJ), make three copies and submit them to the judge for their signature. A copy of your completed Marital Settlement Agreement should be attached to the original and each of the three copies of the FFCLJ. You must also complete and file the Vital Statistics Form. It is recommended that you complete these tasks the day the divorce is granted, however, you do have 30 days to file. After 30 days, you risk having your divorce dismissed and having to start over.
You may need to follow up with different government offices with certain paperwork. This includes signing car titles, real estate deeds, division of pension plans (QDRO), changing of beneficiaries on life insurance policies, revising your will, and other matters when appropriate.
For Immediate help with your family law case or answering any questions please call (262) 221-8123 now!
Forms can be found online here: https://courts.countyofdane.com/Prepare/formFamily
Legal Resource Center (LRC): Rm L1007, (608) 266-6316, Email @: [email protected]
Court Commissioner Center (CCC): Rm 2000
Clerk of Courts (COC): Rm 1000, (608) 266-4311
Are you ready to move forward? Call (262) 221-8123 to schedule a strategy session with one of our attorneys.
After filling out paperwork specific to your situation, you will need to file the paperwork and pay a fee to the Clerk of the Circuit Court. The following fees are approximate and depend entirely on what additional paperwork your case requires.
After filing your paperwork, there is a 120 day mandatory wait time before your final court date can be scheduled.
Waukesha County Courthouse
515 W Moreland Blvd, Madison, WI 53703
Mon-Fri 8 am-4:30 pm
(262) 896-8410
For Immediate help with your family law case or answering any questions please call (262) 221-8123 now!