When you and your spouse decided to end your marriage, you have some options. Should you pursue a divorce – which can be time-consuming, and costly but offers certain protections – or consider the dissolution option – which saves time and money because the couple have worked out a divorced agreement beforehand.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Dissolution: saves time and costs
What path do you consider when seeking to end your marriage?
If you end your marriage through dissolution, you and your estranged spouse must have reached agreements on every marriage-related matter before filing anything in court. Once an agreement is reached, a final hearing is set to dissolve the marriage. In Ohio, that final hearing can take place 30 days after the court filing.
Among the advantages of dissolution is time savings. Compared with divorce, the process is swift, and the couple may gain peace of mind emotionally because they did not go through the rigors of divorce – which can prove costly, more painful and time-consuming.
In dissolution, the initial negotiations are in the hands of the separating couple who address every matter ranging from division of assets and child support to spousal support and parenting time.
With no agreement, divorce is the option
However, sometimes, those negotiations may prove lengthy, turn sour and become filled with high conflict due to a spouse’s unwillingness to cooperate, overly aggressiveness, or not being ready to end the marriage. In such cases, you likely have no choice but to pursue a divorce.
Divorce is essentially a lawsuit to end the marriage.
An advantage of divorce is that it provides specific protections for a spouse that a dissolution cannot. For example, the court may intervene when harassment allegations surface or will get involved to help uncover assets allegedly hidden by a spouse.
Representing different legal processes to end a marriage
Divorce and dissolution ultimately lead to the end of a marriage but subscribe to different legal approaches. Dissolution eliminates the need for court involvement, providing a more streamlined approach to ending a marriage as the separating spouses agree on the terms. In divorce, the court determines the terms.