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Divorce - Marriage Dissolution Kits
With Children
Lincoln County, Washington State
Now Available by download
No court appearance, no parenting
classes and no costly attorney fees!
By Paralegal Amy L. Wishart & Attorney Thomas A. Prediletto,
Do It Yourself Documents
List
Price: $58.95
Our Price: $38.95
Did You Know?
COMMUNITY PROPERTY
is property and profits received by a husband and wife during
the marriage, with the exception of inheritances, specific gifts
to one of the spouses, and property and profits clearly traceable
to property owned before marriage, all of which is separate
property, see
community
property!
Did You Know?
A PETITION FOR DIVORCE (or
"DISSOLUTION") must be filed and decided in court. However,
all states have "no-fault divorce" laws that allow couples to
split on the basis of irreconcilable differences without going
to trial and without the requirement of establishing fault,
see divorce kits!
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Attention: Court filing fees
are $280.00 for all Washington State counties.
Lincoln County: In addition,
an exparte fee of $30.00 is due at the end of 90 days. These
two fees must be in separate money orders or cashier checks. |
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CNN News Story
Lincoln County Divorce
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In the morning, a clerk brings bins and mailbags
from the post office full of new filings for
dissolution of marriage. In his office one floor
up, Superior Court Judge Philip Borst gets writer's
cramp signing final decrees in marathons that
can last six hours or more.
This is the quickie-divorce capital of Washington.
It is one of the few counties in the nation
where marriages can be dissolved by mail without
a court appearance.
Paralegals and attorneys from across the state
swamp County Clerk Peggy Semprimoznik's office
each week with filings for Washington state
residents desiring to shed their spouses more
quickly and inexpensively than they can in the
counties where they live.
This wheat farming county of just over 10,000
people handled 4,035 domestic filings last year,
most of them divorces, Semprimoznik says. That
is more than any other county except King, home
to more than 1.75 million residents in and around
Seattle, which had 5,487 domestic filings, according
to the state Health Department.
"If I had my rathers, I'd rather people stayed
married and had a happy marriage," Borst says.
But he says many of the couples have tried marriage
counseling without success and cannot afford
a drawn-out divorce.
Dissolving their marriages with the stroke of
the pen can save them money and ease the strain
on the whole family, he says.
"From practical experience, once they get to
court and fight, they can't agree and kids suffer
and they suffer," Borst says.
Typically, Borst's signature makes a divorce
final in a little more than the 90-day waiting
period mandated by the state. In some of the
state's larger counties, where court appearances
are required, dockets are crowded with other
matters and divorces can take a year or longer.
The Lincoln County rule that says a court appearance
is not required in uncontested divorces was
adopted in 1983 by a judge who was convinced
it would be a time-saver. Judges have the right
to issue such rules. At least two other small
Washington counties follow the same practice.
As for the rest of the country, Kate Hagan,
director of the American Bar Association's family
law section in Chicago, says she has not heard
of any other counties that allow divorces without
a court appearance. Nor has Katy Robinson, a
spokeswoman for the National Conference of Commissioners
on Uniform State Laws, a Chicago group that
helps legislatures draft legislation.
The ease with which a couple can split up upsets
a Washington family group called Families Northwest
and some church pastors in this town about 35
miles west of Spokane.
Pastor Jon Hammond of the Harvest Celebration
Church, an Assembly of God congregation about
a block from the sandstone courthouse, suggests
the county use revenue from divorce filings
for counseling.
"If we make it harder to get a divorce, it might
give them time to think it through. And maybe
they'll realize divorce is not what they want
to do," he says.
He explains: "We are an agricultural, farming
community, very conservative, mainly Republican.
A lot of churchgoers. A lot of families with
children. It just is contradictory to our lifestyle."
Lincoln County charges a $120 filing fee, plus
$20 when the divorce becomes final. The county
last year earned $489,000 from domestic filings,
or about one-ninth of the annual budget.
Because of the huge number of filings, the weekly
Davenport Times long ago stopped publishing
complete lists of all couples getting divorced
in Lincoln County. The paper now runs only the
names of the 40 or so Lincoln County couples
who split up each year.
Nancy Ballantyne, who until recently lived on
Whidbey Island, near Seattle, got divorced in
Lincoln County recently, ending a 27-year marriage
that raised 10 children and stepchildren. She
mailed in her divorce papers Jan. 10, serving
as her own lawyer.
"I would recommend it. It's such a painful time
for both parties. To me, the least you have
to go through is so much easier," she says.
Her ex-husband, a retired military man, did
not contest the divorce, there was little property
to divide and there were no child custody issues,
she says.
"I was just willing to walk away," she says.
"I just left with two suitcases and a box."
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“Excellent!
Thank you so much for you and your company’s efforts.
You have made this as smooth of a process as I could
possibly imagine — very appreciated.”
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Seattle, WA
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you for your assistance Amy; this was a very smooth
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business. Best wishes for the holidays.”
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Cathlamet, WA
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is filed! Thanks once again for your help. That
was the best $250 I ever spent!”
Mary O.
Spokane, WA
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Divorce - Marriage Dissolution Kits
With Children
All Washington State counties
except Lincoln County
Now Available by download
By Paralegal Amy L. Wishart &
Attorney Thomas A. Prediletto, Do It Yourself Documents
List
Price: $41.95
Our Price: $28.95
Did You Know?
Do It Yourself Documents offers
specials and discounts that change weekly!
Did You Know?
Do It Yourself
Documents carries state-specific items for all 50 states
and DC.
Did You Know?
Sixty percent of bankruptcies and seventy-five
percent of divorces
in California are done without lawyers!
Did You Know?
Read what
Consumer Affairs
has to say about
legal kits.
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