So you want to get divorced. Now What?!
In September the Washington County Law Library hosted a webinar on the divorce process with Christopher Fanning from Schantz Fanning P.C. The video of the presentation is now available on the county’s YouTube!
We often get asked about family law and divorce. There are a lot of variations – married or unmarried couples, with or without children. This is one topic the court has forms for. The trick can be finding the right form.
The Washington County Circuit Court’s forms page has several “Family Law” forms. Dissolution is the term they use for divorce, while legal separation leaves the parties married. There are also forms for unmarried parents. If you find forms that look right for you, read the instructions to be sure. There are other family law forms as well, for things like modification or custody enforcement.
A resource for information about family law in Oregon is OregonLawHelp – Family. This site from Legal Aid discusses a variety of topics including divorce, custody, child or spousal support, etc.
The Multnomah County Library has a webpage with information on how to find vital records in Oregon. If you are seeking vital records stored locally, check with your own public library’s website or your local city, county, or court clerk offices.
A Multnomah County Librarian has posted this practical and lighthearted collection of wedding, marriage, and divorce law links:
“Now that it’s legal: same-sex marriage and the law,” by Emily-Jane D., Jun 04, 2014
And maybe it’s also time to update my Engagement Ring Law blog post!
Legal self-help is a bit of a crap-shoot unless you have official (i.e. court sanctioned and current) legal forms or the guiding hand of an attorney, but sometimes one has to plug along the best one can.
Public law librarians not infrequently get requests for legal separation forms. Oregon has, rather had, legal separation forms, and still, sort of, does have them. But, well, read on:
Disclaimer! Warning!
“Tough divorce attorneys smack into wall of conflict,” by Peter Korn, Portland Tribune, October 25, 2012.
Excerpt: “This is what happens when you get a reputation as the roughest, toughest, you-don’t-want-to-mess-with-me divorce attorney in town.
Jody Stahancyk is the attorney in question, and love her or hate her, if you’re getting a divorce, she’s the lawyer you don’t want representing your spouse. Or at least, that’s what a number of people seem to think, since Stahancyk has become the prime target of a legal but maybe not so ethical strategy called “conflicting out.
Here’s how it works:…” [Link to full Portland Tribune article.]
Oregon family law attorneys give away a lot of free information and collaborate to make available lots of free family law forms.
The Oregon Judicial Department Family Law Facilitators offer free advice and invaluable services to many self-represented litigants, but family law can become complex very quickly when there are children, substantial financial assets, or simply whenever there is no meeting of the minds.
Family law attorneys also provide lots of information, which you can find on their websites. I’ve come across this one recently, a Northwest law firm that has a collection of articles and a guide to divorce in Oregon, all free.
Oregon is a common law property state, so what happens when you move here from a community property state and you want to preserve your community property rights?
If you are a community property couple and you move to Oregon, you need to be careful how you buy property, how you title it, how you finance it, how you dispose of it, etc., etc., etc.
The January 2008 issue of the OSB Estate Planning and Administration Section newsletter has an article on the subject, Preserving Community Property Rights in Oregon, by Kevin Tillson, Hunt & Associates, PC.
P.S. For non-attorneys – please don’t confuse common law property rights with common law marriage, another matter entirely. See the Oregon State Bar blurb:
The Washington County Law Library has a new legal research guide on filing, finding, registering, and amending Oregon vital records and locating vital records from other states. For information specifically about Oregon marriage licenses, see Laura’s previous post from June 2009. If you are trying to locate divorce records, see my post from September 26, 2011. As always, you can locate all of the documents uploaded to the law library’s website in our document index.
We’ve been receiving numerous calls lately from people wanting copies of their divorce records. The first step is knowing which county would have the records (where did the divorce occur?). From there, you need to contact the applicable circuit court. The Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) provides links to each circuit court (left-hand side of the page in a drop-down list under “Circuit Court Websites”). OJD also provides these instructions for finding copies of court records or information on court cases. Note, your court records may be in the court’s archives or another off-site location, affecting the amount of time the request will take. Some courts handle record requests both in person and by mail. See the Washington County Circuit Court Records Department webpage for information on obtaining Washington County court records (the page also provides information on the difference between copies, certified copies, and exemplified copies). You can find more information on divorce and family law matters in Washington County at the law library’s divorce/family law page.
If you are looking for information on finding copies of Oregon marriage licenses, see Laura’s blog post from June 2009. The law library’s divorce/family law page also has information on filing and finding vital records.
Oregon Legal Research Blog