Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Re: 30 day default divorce

Thanks for your question about a default divorce. Unfortunately, there are not enough facts to answer your questions, but this is the general rule:

A divorce proceeding is started by personally serving the other party with a summons and petition for dissolution of marriage. The other party has thirty days to answer. An answer is a written document that states whether the other party admits or denies the various allegations in the petition.

If the other party does not serve an answer, he or she is in default and the court can enter a default judgment. Naturally, before you can ask the court for a default judgment, your summons, petition for dissolution of marriage and an affidavit of service must be filed with the court. The filing fee in most Minnesota counties is $330.00. Depending on the issues in your case (and in particular, whether custody and child support are at issue), you may be required to bring a motion and request entry of a default judgment. There is a "motion filing fee" that is required if you must file a motion. The motion filing fee is $55.00.

As a practical matter, although an answer to the divorce petition must be served in 30 days, you cannot actually proceed with a default divorce for 50 days (as a general rule).

What I have described above applies if there is no agreement between the parties. If the parties can agree to all of the terms of a divorce, their agreement is usually reduced to writing and submitted to the court, along with the summons and petition. The court then enters a divorce decree, "by default," althoug in such cases, the default is a formality.

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