The Modern Woman’s Divorce Guide » Weekly Divorce Tip: Drafting your Marital Settlement Agreement or Divorce Agreement

Weekly Divorce Tip: Drafting your Marital Settlement Agreement or Divorce Agreement

Once you and your husband have come to an agreement about the terms of your divorce (e.g. property division, child custody, child support, spousal support, etc.), it is time to put your agreement in writing. Because every state and county has different rules and requirements for drafting legal agreements, and because your final agreement, once executed and filed with the court becomes a legally binding judgment or contract, we suggest you hire a lawyer to draft your formal agreement and review each of the terms with you so you clearly understand the choices you are making. Alternatively, you may hire a legal document preparation company or a paralegal to draft the agreement or judgment, but if you do, do not rely on either for legal advice unless the person providing it to you is a licensed practicing lawyer in your state.

If you decide that you don’t want to hire a lawyer or service to draft your agreement and prefer to do it yourself but don’t know where to begin, start by searching through your state’s free online legal forms to determine if there is a standardized form you may use. If your state court does not have a general legal form that may be used, search for a state specific “do-it-yourself” divorce guide that includes a disc or printed samples you can follow. To quickly find out if such a book exists for your state, select your state from our State Resources menu and look in the right column of the state page for the heading “Related Reading”, which will contain information and links to state specific do-it-yourself divorce books recently published in each state. For example, if you live in California and you click on the California State Resources page, you’ll find three books listed under “Related Reading” that include instructions for preparing California divorce documents. (Each of the books included in our Related Reading columns are directly linked to Amazon and may be purchased by you, but if you are on a tight budget, you can also contact your local public library and borrow the book if it is available.) If a state specific book does not exist in your state, general sample agreements may also be found in a number of other books like Ed Sherman’s Make Any Divorce Better!: Specific Steps to Make Things Smoother, Faster, Less Painful, and Save You a Lot of Money (Make Any Divorce Better!).

And, if you are unable to find any standardized forms or state-specific books with sample divorce agreements, look for a family law clinic in your community or go to your local family court clerk’s office and ask if they have any sample or actual divorce agreements that you can use as a template for creating your agreement.

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