I have written plenty of articles on how to draft a stipulations and what stipulations are used for in the divorce process, but not so much about how long the stipulations take to get back from court.
Here is the deal. When we draft a stipulation and once it has been filed with the court, it can take several months to get the judge to sign it. It is not because they are figuring out if they are going to approve it or not, rather it is just sitting there in a huge pile of paperwork waiting to be approved.
When we take the stipulations down to the court via messenger, they are given to the file clerk, who receives the payment which is $20 to receive the judge’s signature and then the stipulations are eventually taken to the courtroom where you case is being processed. This is the situation whether your case is completed already or you are in them middle of the case.
So we really have no control over how long it will take to receive a stipulation back from the court. We have even had stipulations lost by the court which is always fun because we have to have the parties sign the stipulation again.
The court’s have even lost full judgments, but don’t get me started on that.
We do quite a bit of stipulations. They are good to draft up agreements the parties have or to make changes or modifications to terms in the divorce judgment or even to modify a previously written stipulation.
Here are some other articles I have written about divorce stipulations
Proof Of Income Required With Spousal Support Stipulations
Changes with Child Support Stipulations
Spousal Support Stipulations Need Specific Start Date
How To Establish Spousal Support Stipulation
In the last week or so we drafted several stipulations. One was a stipulation for child support and spousal support. We are working with clients who needed more time on how to decide the best way to divide up their property and with issues of child custody they still wanted to discus. But they were agreed upon on the amount of child support and spousal support so we went ahead and drafted the stipulations for child support and spousal support.
What we will do when they have the remainder of there agreements in is just attache the stipulation regarding child support and spousal support to the final judgment in their divorce case.
It is sometimes a good idea to have your agreements drafted in a stipulation while your are going through the divorce process so documents the agreements you have if you feel it is going to take a long time to decide everything in your divorce case.
Most our clients do the entire judgment at one time, but for these folks, one of the spouses needed to move out and wanted some reassurance that the child support and spousal support order was in place prior to moving out and is why we drafted the stipulation for child support and spousal support in this case. Additionally, the stipulation for child support and spousal support can be used as evidence of income if you are trying to rent a home or apartment.
