Some county clerks are extremely helpful to those that are doing this whole divorce thing without a lawyer. Or, so I hear. The clerks in my county, however, do not live up to that. Maybe because I’m in the state capital, the clerks are all friends with lawyers? This was a suggestion made to me.
I don’t think so, Tim.
I spent weeks contacting the office, with the simple goal of discovering if I had filed all of the forms that were needed to get a court date. WEEKS. Turns out, I did not have the correct forms filed. Well, I had, but I had attempted to time travel, and the courts frown on anything involving a flux capacitor.
I filed the divorce in June. The forms were all signed on the same day, before the day of filing. One of the forms, the Answer and Waiver, is a form that says the defendant – her – doesn’t need to be officially served. They relinquish that right. It’s considered a literal answer to the divorce filing, and you can’t answer a filing before the filing is made. Did they alert me when I filed the form? No. Did they answer my calls? No. Did they answer my voice mails within 24 hours? About half of the time. At OHMYGOD o’clock, when this second shifter was snoring away. So, the Answer and Waiver form was re-signed, re-filed, and I spend another TWO WEEKS pestering them to find out if all of my forms were submitted. Yes, yes, they were.
All I had to do was call and schedule a court date. To be entirely fair, the clerk in charge of scheduling answers her phone every single time, and when I’ve called and left her a voice mail (after her stated hours, so I knew I was going to), she returned my call within my requested time frame. This clerk gets a thumbs-up.
I have two weeks and six days of waiting until my divorce hearing. According to the previously-mentioned awesome clerk, there is about an hour of waiting time for five minutes of court time. Now, I have to file two documents before that date, and then bring three copies of the Judgement of Divorce to the hearing with me.
That’s right. I get to fill out the actual Judgement. The Judge just signs it.
Two weeks and six days.
When you encounter someone who actually competently DOES THEIR JOB, it’s always nice to remember them after it’s over with a card or some flowers. They are a disappearing breed. :)
I agree with shelbyden – I’d send a thank you card to that clerk. :) It sounds like she’s in the minority at her workplace, and I’m almost certain that employee performance recognition in a government job like that is probably nil.
That said, I am glad that you are reaching a point of closure on this matter and can move forward in your life. It only gets better from here. :)
You end up being funny also as sounding too serious all at the exact same time, I can’t stress that value in writing and enhancing one’s personal web space.