How Long Does An Uncontested Divorce Take to Process in New York?

This video features Chaim Steinberger, a Family Law attorney based in New York.

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How long does an uncontested divorce take to process and become official?

Chaim Steinberger is a family law attorney with Chaim Steinberger, P.C, based in New York. In this Quick Question, he explains that it partially depends upon the county, the backlog of cases, and the amount of time it takes for the attorney to prepare the paperwork. Other hiccups could delay the process further, but in general it takes at least three to six months to fully process.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 888-981-0039 or by submitting a contact form on this page.

It could take five to ten hours for an attorney to draw up the papers.

The initial time-consuming portion of the process occurs when an attorney draws up the paperwork. However, in an uncontested divorce this time could range from five to ten hours or even less of a divorce attorney’s billable hours, resulting in a much less expensive process than it would be otherwise. After an attorney has finished drawing up the separation agreement and the judgment roll packet, it can finally be submitted to the court. This is where the length of time it takes for the divorce process to conclude can vary widely.

It’s also important to note that contested divorces can take considerably longer, with the negotiations and the mediation process using a considerable amount of time. Finding an experienced divorce attorney with the availability to draw up the papers can help speed along the process considerably.

If the court system is backlogged, it could take longer for the divorce to process.

The divorce documents must be reviewed by clerks in the court system to ensure that nothing is missing and that all of the rules of divorce are being followed. However, these rules are constantly changing so it is not entirely uncommon for divorce documents to be sent back to the attorney to be adjusted and resubmitted. This is an added step that can lengthen the time it takes to process even an uncontested divorce.

Similarly, if the court is already backlogged for any reason, this could delay the time it takes for the divorce to be finally processed. Steinberger suggests that this could take three to six months on average, depending on the complexity of the agreement, the backlog in the court system, the county the divorce is filed in, and other smaller factors. However, it is generally agreed that uncontested divorces conclude much faster than contested divorces, so three to six months isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things.

To learn more, contact Chaim Steinberger directly by calling 888-981-0039 or by submitting a contact form on this page.

Video Transcript:

Rob Rosenthal:

I got a Quick Question for you from AskTheLawyers.com, do you know how long an uncontested divorce usually takes in New York City? Attorney Chaim Steinberger has our answer.

Chaim Steinberger:

It takes a couple of hours for lawyers to prepare papers, so for example, it might take me between five and 10 hours to prepare a separation agreement. It may take me five hours or sometimes less to prepare the judgment roll packet, and so the client would pay me for the time I devote to it. And then we submit it to the court. Now, it depends on what the backlog in the court system is. It winds its way through the court system, the clerks take a look at it, if they find some things and the rules are constantly changing, so sometimes they send them back. I pride myself on not having things sent back, sometimes it still gets sent back, and so you have to re-submit it. And then once it goes in process and gets processed through, that might take three to six months, depending on the county, depending how busy it is, depending how far the backlog is.

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