Process for Obtaining a Divorce in North Carolina

Step 1
Either you or your spouse must live in North Carolina for six months prior to filing for divorce.
You must live in separate homes for at least one year prior to filing for divorce.

Step 2
We will do a phone interview to get the information necessary to file your divorce or you can submit part of the needed information by visiting this link. Gathering the necessary information from you generally takes 15 minutes. A third way to provide us information is you can print this form at this link, complete it, and mail it in to our office.

Some of the information that is needed is your name, address, phone numbers and Social Security numbers. The date you were married, the date you began living apart, the name of the city and state where you got married, the first name and age of any children you had with your spouse.
If you receive Food Stamps, AFDC or SSI then you may not have to pay court costs to file the divorce.

Step 3
We will prepare the necessary legal documents and mail them to you for your signature and also a letter containing information. Return the documents to us with the legal fee and court cost in the self addressed envelope that we provide. You owe me nothing if you do not use the documents.

Step 4
When we have received the documents from you, we will file the divorce case with the Clerk of Court. A summons will be issued by the Clerk and we will mail it or have the sheriff serve it and deliver it to your spouse.

Step 5
When we determine that the summons was legally delivered to your spouse we put the case on the court calendar for the judge to sign the divorce judgment. Due to court rules, the judge will ordinarily not sign the divorce judgment for fifty to sixty days from the date of legal delivery of the summons.

Step 6
After the divorce has been signed by the Judge we will then mail true copies of the Divorce Judgment with the court seal to both of you.

To get started, you can either complete this simple online form so
that we have some basic information about you or you can call our
office at 1-800-303-0960.