Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Re: False Information

It depends on what you and/or the person who filed the divorce are expecting from the divorce proceeding. If you and your spouse are both just interested in getting divorced and neither is seeking any child custody/visitation determination, child or spousal support or property settlement from the other, probably the best thing to do is nothing at all.

Your spouse can, in that case, bear the burden of proof for the grounds for divorce and bear the consequences if some perjury takes place. You do not sin against the law by doing nothing in this situation. You will probably just get divorced and that's about it. If that's what you want, sit back and let it happen.

If, alternatively, you or your spouse want the court to order support or division of property (or debts), then you need to hire an attorney with experience in contested divorces. And bring a fat wallet or hefty checkbook with you; contested divorces are time consuming, troublesome and costly (and that's just from the attorney's point of view!) It was, I believe, the great Scottish philosopher David Hume who described life as "nasty, brutish and short". Contested divorces are all of the foregoing EXCEPT "short." Avoid it if at all possible. If you can't avoid it, be prepared to spend a lot of money and endure a lot of aggravation and, probably, grief. And you will NEVER get all that you want from one.

I can say all of that objectively because I quit doing contested divorces about four years ago. I decided then that I had all the gray hair I wanted, thank you very much.