Annotate Legal Washington Marriage Forms For Free

An uncontested divorce in Washington State is a divorce in which neither spouse is the defendant. There's no need to attend a court hearing and it's much quicker, easier, and cheaper than a contested divorce.

Many Washington State courts have a public access terminal in the courthouse where you can view JIS public record case information such as an index of filed cases and a list of documents filed in each case. Contact your local court to see if they have a public access terminal.

You can download the official Washington forms (for free), or you can often buy hard copies of the forms from your local county courthouse. Washington Law Help also provides an online DIY packet with instructions. The main form to start the divorce process is the petition for divorce (FL Divorce 201).

1st Stage: Petition/Response. The petition is the document that says the petitioner wants a divorce. Most petitions are basic documents putting the other side on notice of the case. The petition is filed with the court along with supporting documents and served upon the other spouse, called the respondent.

Total attorney costs range from $11,000 to $12,000. Understand that a few expensive divorces can skew that total cost higher. Even if you do hire an attorney, your total bill could be far lower than $10,000. However, you will have costs outside of the lawyer, such as the filing fee, which can be around $300 on its own.

If either spouse, or the guardian of an incompetent spouse, or in some cases, the legal spouse or child of either spouse wants to ask the court to declare that the marriage is invalid, then the person requesting the declaration should file a Petition for Declaration Concerning Validity.