Divorce cases sometimes seem to drag on forever. When a case doesn’t settle, it can take a year or longer to get from the start of the case to the court trial. When a case finally goes to court, husband and wife naturally think that is the end of their case. Wrong! In most cases, the judge does not rule at the time of trial. The judge takes the matter “under advisement” and issues a written ruling at a later date. Weeks or months can pass after the divorce court trial before husband and wife are finally actually divorced.
In addition, in some divorce cases, especially those that are complicated and hotly contested, there can be significant work left to do after the court trial. I recently had a divorce case involving children that went to trial. At the conclusion of the trial, the judge asked both lawyers to submit proposed divorce decrees to the court via email in Microsoft Word format, presumably for the judge’s use in crafting his final orders. Preparing these proposed decrees took considerable time for the lawyers to do and was a considerable expense for both parties.
Approximately one month after the trial, the judge issued a written ruling, but the ruling contained at least one error and one omission that needed to be corrected. As a result, I filed a post-trial motion under Rule 84 of the Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure (ARFLP) asking the court to alter and amend the judgment to correct the errors. I am anticipating that the other lawyer will oppose at least part of my motion, so again, there will be fees charged to the parties for this time and work.
In addition to a motion to alter or amend a judgment, other post-trial motions that may be filed include a motion for a new trial (Rule 83, ARFLP), a motion for reconsideration (Rule 35 D, ARFLP), and a motion to set aside the ruling (Rule 85 C, ARFLP). Furthermore, if a trial ruling is appealed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, the appeals process can take up to a year or longer to complete. Some appeals are followed by additional proceedings in the trial court as directed by the Court of Appeals.
Once the trial judge signs a decree/order dissolving the parties’ marriage, the husband and wife are divorced. The post-trial proceedings will not affect the parties’ marital status but do prolong the agony in other ways (financial expense, aggravation, etc). To avoid these post-trial processes, husband and wife should attempt to settle all the issues between themselves and not leave anything for the court to decide. Obviously if both parties consent to the terms of the divorce decree and prepare the divorce decree themselves, neither should feel the need to fix the decree after it is signed by the judge. Child custody, child support and sometimes spousal support continue to be modifiable by the trial judge at a later time if/when circumstances change.
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