Legal Question in Family Law in Kentucky

Okay, there are a whole lot of misconceptions about the law here. Let's clarify.

First, you never *have* to have a lawyer represent you as an individual in any legal action. You always have the right to represent yourself. It is called "pro se." However, if you are involved in a legal action as a business, you cannot represent the business in court unless you are an attorney licensed in the state. For instance, you're John Smith and you own John Smith Rental Properties, LLC. If you're trying to evict someone, you need an attorney to represent the company. But in the divorce action of John Smith v. Jane Smith, both John and Jane can proceed pro se.

By "non-contested" divorce, I am assuming you mean a divorce where both the husband and wife are in agreement about all the terms. That means, they agree on who gets the house, the cars, what money, other personal items, and most importantly, custody, visitation and child support if there are minor children. Those divorces are very easy, and it is only a matter of filing the paperwork. There is no court appearance to be made, because the parties file an agreed order setting forth all of the terms of dissolution. Within reason, the court is going to sign off on whatever you agree to. The easiest divorce is the couple that has nothing: no property, no assets, no debts, no children. Generally they agree to just take what they brought into the marriage, and go their separate ways. Those divorces are the quickest too. The most difficult is when there are children, and debts, and real estate and even jointly-owned businesses.

However, if by "non-contested" you mean both parties are in agreement to get divorced, but don't agree on anything else, then that is a different matter all together and is what we consider to be contested. In nearly every state, including Kentucky, divorce is "no-fault," meaning there doesn't have to be grounds for divorce other than "irreconciliable differences." If one party wants a divorce, they will get a divorce. In those cases, then (at least one) court hearing is necessary to make decisions on dividing assets and debts, and deciding child custody. The parties can also agree on some things (for instance, who gets the kids and when) but not other things (who gets the house, how much maintenance needs to be paid, etc.). The court will decide the things the parties cannot agree upon.

Be very wary of the "do it yourself divorce kits." Not only are they expensive, but each county in Kentucky has slightly different local rules on what needs to be in those forms, and requirements of things to be done before a divorce can be granted. People get into a lot of trouble and delay their divorces because they weren't aware of certain requirements (for instance, in Fayette County, and many other counties, if you have minor children, there is a parent education class the parties must attend). Check with your circuit court clerk for the local rules, which most often those rules will include all of the actual forms you need. And those are free. Many of those are online at http://courts.ky.gov/

Finally, if you are deciding not to hire an attorney because you can't afford one, contact Legal Aid or your local bar association for available pro bono or reduced fee services. Particularly if you and your spouse are in agreement on all terms and you just need the papers filed, you only need one attorney (the attorney would represent one of you and the other would be considered pro se.) You also might qualify financially to have your filing fee waived.

People tend to do really foolish things when they rely on the DIY divorce kits, like not including their minor children in the divorce action, or not filing a Quit Claim Deed to get one spouse's name off of the house, not naming all of the marital assets and debts, and cause themselves huge legal issues later on that cost them thousands of dollars to resolve, when if they'd just ponied up and paid the $500 to $750 flat fee (which usually includes the court fees) for an attorney to draw up the papers, none of it would have ever happened.