What is a divorce decree? My law office frequently receives calls from people wanting to know if they’re indeed legally married. They usually have lots of questions about the paper work that was filed and what it all means. Now, in the proceedings of a divorce, many, many documents are produced. You’ll be participating in discovery which is giving gobs of paper work to the other side.
Your spouse will be providing those documents to you. The lawyers will then bring those all down in to three basic documents. Your marital settlement agreement which sets forth who gets what. Your parenting plan which sets forth where the children go, who has custody and what the time sharing is and what the divorce decree. The final document is the divorce decree.
The divorce decree is the one document that must be signed by the Judge that gives you the divorce. Those other documents can be signed and given to the Court but until the Judge signs the divorce decree and it’s actually stamped by the clerk, you’re not divorced. The divorce decree, as I said, is the final document that must be signed by the Judge and stamped by the court which finalizes your divorce.