Understanding the Time Frame for an Oklahoma Divorce
Understanding the Timeline of an Oklahoma Divorce Proceeding
How long will it take to get through your divorce proceeding? My name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a dad’s rights lawyer in Tulsa here with Dads.law, where fathers are not disposable. Let’s talk about time. This is a question I get all the time. How long is it gonna take to get this done? And the short answer is it depends, like many things.
At a bare minimum, you’re probably talking 60 to 90 days if everything is copacetic and agreed to. Certainly if there’s kids involved, because there’s waiting period. But if you’re talking realistically, here’s kind of the minimum you’re gonna go through to get a divorce done.
Obviously you have to get everything drafted, which would include your petition, your summons, your application of temporary orders if you want temporary orders, application for PPC in Tulsa County. Get all that drafted, filed, and served. And that takes time. Once that part’s done, Tulsa County, if you want to do temporary orders, if you need a hearing, then you gotta do the PPC. You have to go through that process. There’s two videos you have to watch. Sign the attestation form. And usually if you file, you’re gonna be looking at least two weeks to 30 days to get to the PPC.
After that, it’s at least another 30 or so days to get to a temporary order if you can’t settle it at the PPC. Then from there, once you get your temporary order, now you’re looking at having to do mediation because the courts are not gonna give you a trial date without mediation. They won’t give you a pretrial conference date without mediation. Also in that process too, there’s the discovery process you have to go through. Everybody’s gotta exchange their financials. Everybody, you gotta answer any other discovery that’s exchanged. And that takes time. Discovery process is usually at least a month to get done, sometimes longer depending on how complex it is. And you have to do it. It’s not optional. And then if you drag your ass, well, it’s gonna make it go longer. So unfortunately, those are all things that typically have to happen.
Considering Settlement and Trial Options
If you’re talking about a really friendly divorce where you all agree on everything and there’s not any real complicated issues, you might be able to get it done faster than that. But that’s a typical process. Now if you go to mediation and you can’t settle it at mediation, you have to set a pretrial conference date and a trial. And if you’re going to trial, you may be into it for more than a year before it’s done. If you settle it, could be less. Maybe not, it just depends. But that’s realistically what the time frame looks like and some of the steps that are involved and why it takes so long.
One of the problems, at least in Tulsa County, is the docket calendar, the court’s calendar is so busy that it takes time to get all these court dates. And there’s several of them before you get to a final disposition. So that’s unfortunately the environment we operate in and it’s a pain in the, and it’s kind of a problem, but it is what it is.
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If you have questions about that or you’re going through the divorce process, you need a good divorce attorney in Oklahoma. One place you can find one is at dads.law where fathers are not disposable.
