Filing for divorce can feel overwhelming, especially for those unfamiliar with the legal process in Nebraska. Many individuals face uncertainty about court procedures, paperwork, and the impact on finances and family life. Understanding the legal process makes the procedure easier and less overwhelming.
The decision to move forward with filing for divorce in Nebraska can be accompanied by fear and hesitation. While the process may seem complex, the legal system is designed to address issues systematically.
Knowing the grounds for divorce, the general process, the common delays, ways to prepare, and the available help allows for better planning and informed decision-making.
Understanding Divorce in Nebraska
Legal Grounds for Divorce
Divorce can be based on two main grounds:
- No-Fault Divorce – The marriage has irretrievably broken down, and neither spouse has to show a specific fault in order for the Court to grant the divorce. Showing that the marriage is broken and not fixable is enough to grant the divorce, even if one party would prefer to stay married.
- Fault-Based Divorce – A spouse must show a serious fault in order for the Court to grant the divorce. In Nebraska, all divorces are no-fault divorces. In other states, fault-based divorces can also be granted. In some countries, if you can’t show legal fault, the Court can require a spouse to stay married when they want out of the relationship.
Even under no-fault divorce, the Court can look at the behaviors of the parties when dividing how to fairly split the marital estate, especially if a spouse is requesting alimony or spousal support. However, a spouse doesn’t have to show a specific fault in order for the Court to grant the divorce. If one spouse wants out of the marriage, the Court can grant the no-fault divorce even if the other spouse objects. The spouse that wants the divorce doesn’t have to prove a specific element of fault in order for the divorce to be granted. A spouse testifying that they have irreconcilable differences with no hope of reconciliation is generally enough for the Court to grant the divorce. As Nebraska is a “no-fault” state, the Court doesn’t have to spend much time trying to figure out the faults of the parties in order to decide whether the divorce should be granted or not. Growing apart, handling finances differently, or simply just not getting along are enough for the Court to grant the divorce in a no-fault state. This differs especially from other countries that generally require a fault basis for a divorce. In those countries, the Court can require you to remain married even if you want to end things when you cannot show a serious fault by the other spouse.
Residency Requirements
Filing for divorce in Nebraska requires that at least one spouse meet the state residency requirements. Typically, one party must have lived in Nebraska for at least one year and have the intent to remain a Nebraska resident at the time of filing. If the length of residency is in question, proof of residency may include utility bills, leases, or other official documents.
Meeting the one-year requirement is a crucial first step. If neither party has lived in Nebraska for one year, then you cannot file a divorce action in Nebraska. In this situation, you may instead choose to file a legal separation in Nebraska, which you can convert into a divorce action once the one-year residency has been met. In a legal separation, the Court can enter orders dividing some of the property and debt while the parties remain married. The Court can also address custody issues as part of a legal separation action.
Keep in mind that where you got married rarely has an effect on whether you can file your divorce in Nebraska. Under Nebraska law, the Court can move forward with the divorce if the spouses reside in Nebraska even if they married in a foreign country.
If you have children together, the rules as to which state handles custody are different than the residency rules to file a divorce. The original custody action is usually filed in the state where the children have been residing the last six months. Thus, there are times that the custody action must be filed in a different state than the divorce action. However, usually the custody case is filed as part of the divorce action and within the same court case number.
Types of Divorce Proceedings
Divorce cases can take a number of different general paths in Nebraska.
1. With or without children:
With Children: If the spouses have children together, you are likely going to have to take some extra steps. You will need to take a required co-parenting tips class (often taken as a one-time online class). You will need to create a parenting plan, often with the help of a mediator, to detail the custody and parenting time provisions. You will need to determine the financial issues related to the children, including child support, child care costs, tax claims, etc.
No children: If the spouses do not have children together, you skip these steps in the process entirely.
2. Contested or Uncontested:
Spouse Generally on the Same Page: A spouse usually has a good idea whether the case will be contested or not at the start of the divorce process. Uncontested cases generally have some exchange of financial documents, often in a more informal manner, and generally some back-and-forth as to what the details of the terms of the divorce decree should be. However, the parties are generally close to being in agreement on the major terms at the start of the process. The process generally requires little court involvement as the parties work out a solution with the assistance of the attorney(s) through settlement negotiations. The attorney(s) draft the legally-required paperwork and guide the process. You may never have to enter the Court or attend a hearing to finalize an uncontested divorce. The judge approves the divorce decree signed by the parties as their agreement.
Spouses Not in Agreement: Contested divorces usually start with the spouses having very different ideas as to what is fair and what the final divorce decree should award each spouse. Documents are usually exchanged in a more formal manner. There may be the necessity of one or more court hearings and there may be formal requests for information, such as subpoenas or depositions. However, even for contested divorces, most divorces do reach a settlement agreement without the need for a full trial. Settlement negotiations, usually with the assistance of attorneys, are a normal part of the divorce process and often lead to a resolution without the need for a full trial even in cases that begin as very contested. Only a small percentage of divorce cases require a trial to reach a resolution. However, if you are headed to trial, you will want to retain an attorney to assist you.
Step-by-Step Process of Filing for Divorce in Nebraska
Preparing the Necessary Documents to Start the Divorce
The procedure to start the divorce is generally about the same no matter the path. Once the original paperwork is filed, the next steps vary and increasingly diverge depending on the path you are on.
Before you even start the Court filing, you can help yourself by gathering information and doing some planning before you file. If you have children together, start to think about what schedule will work for you to have custody and parenting time with your children. Are there things that you can change logistically that could make the process easier? For example, have you talked with your work to see if you can adjust your hours or have some flexibility if you will need flexibility to take your children to their school or activities during your parenting time? Do you have copies of all the financial information that you have legitimate access to? Clients that have copies of all their key financial documents before the divorce action is even filed have generally streamlined the process. A lot of time and money can otherwise be necessary to try to gather and track down financial documents, especially if the other spouse is non-cooperative after the divorce action is filed.
Filing the Complaint and Serving the Other Spouse
Once you are ready to start the court case, you start with filing the Complaint for Dissolution of Marriage. This document is somewhat standard and asks the Court to dissolve your marriage. There are a number of required statements that are included as part of the Complaint, especially if there are children involved. The Complaint states generally that you want to divorce and to split the assets and debts in a fair way. The Complaint doesn’t usually go into detail as to exactly how you want things divided, but instead gives general notice that you want the divorce and the general financial and custody arrangements that you are requesting. Depending on your requests, some requests require further detail included in the Complaint in order for the Court to consider the request. For example, if you want to move the children from the State of Nebraska, you have to specially request the request to move in the Complaint.
You can see some sample Complaints on the Nebraska Supreme Court’s website – Simple Divorce With Children in Nebraska
When you file the Complaint, you have to pay a court filing fee or file the additional paperwork to request a filing fee waiver due to being low income. The current fee is $164.00 but the Court periodically increases this fee over time. You can find the updated filing costs on the court’s website: Filing Fees and Court Costs
Along with the Complaint and filing fee, you are required to file some documents with your statistical information, such as including the birth dates and social security numbers of the parties. These confidential information documents are kept by the Court but are not available for the public to access.
This Complaint is generally filed in the county where one of the spouses is residing.
Once the Complaint is filed, your case will be assigned a case number and a judge will be assigned to handle your case. This is the start of the divorce process.
Once the Complaint is filed, you have to formally serve the other party with the Complaint. This is generally done in one of two ways:
- Voluntary Appearance. Even if the case is contested, your spouse may be willing to waive formal service. They do this by acknowledging receiving the Complaint by signing a document called a Voluntary Appearance. This Voluntary Appearance is then filed with the Court and counts as service of the Complaint.
- Service by Sheriff. If the other spouse doesn’t sign a Voluntary Appearance, then usually the Complaint is sent to the sheriff for service. The Sheriff serves the Complaint by physically handling the Complaint to the spouse. The Sheriff then files the proof of service with the Court and this counts as service of the Complaint. You have to file the request for service (called a praecipe) and then forward the service documents (including a document called a summons) to the sheriff. The sheriff charges a fee to serve the paperwork. There is some nuance in how sheriff service happens depending on which county the other spouse is being served.
In some cases, the Sheriff is unable to serve the Complaint and the other spouse won’t sign a Voluntary Appearance. In those situations, you can file a request with the Court to ask for permission to serve the Complaint on your spouse in an alternative manner.
Answer and Counter Complaint
Once served with the Complaint, a spouse generally must file a response with the Court within thirty (30) days of being served if the spouse wants to contest anything. This is usually in the form of an Answer and Counter Complaint being filed with the Court. If the served spouse files an Answer and Counter Complaint, you generally file a short response to this, which was historically called the Reply.
Sixty Day Mandatory Waiting Period
Once the other spouse is served, Nebraska’s sixty day mandatory waiting period also begins. Even if you and your spouse are in agreement with everything at the time the divorce is filed, you have to wait until the sixty day waiting period has passed to finalize your divorce. However, if you and your spouse are in agreement on all terms, once the sixty days is up, you can finalize your divorce, often without even the need for a hearing. Your attorney can prepare a hearing waiver to go along with your divorce decree and related documents. In most situations, if both spouses sign the hearing waiver and divorce decree with related documents after the sixty days are up, you can submit these documents to the Court to finalize your divorce without attending a hearing. The divorce still goes through the Court even though you never actually step foot into a courtroom.
Temporary Orders
Especially if there are children involved or alimony is being requested, it is very common in a contested divorce case for the case to be set for a temporary hearing soon after the other spouse is served. This doesn’t happen automatically. You have to file a formal motion with the Court and request a hearing date. The motion and hearing date are then sent to the other spouse at the address that they were served at.
The Temporary Hearing is usually not like a mini-trial in procedure. With some exceptions, you can’t call witnesses or testify at the temporary hearing. Instead, the Court decides the temporary order by reviewing the affidavits of the parties. Affidavits are written statements that are signed in front of a notary and submitted to the Court prior to the hearing. The affidavits are usually due to the Court by a set time prior to the hearing date (usually due two or more days prior the hearing, but it depends on the rules of the specific county/court). The judge then reviews the affidavits and attachments as the evidence to decide what is an appropriate temporary order while the case is pending.
Temporary orders address immediate needs before the final judgment. Courts may issue temporary orders regarding child custody, the regular parenting time schedule and holidays, child support, spousal support, or property use. These orders stay in place until the final divorce decree is entered. It provides some structure as to what is expected of each party while the divorce case is pending.
If the case is uncontested, you may not need a temporary order or may enter into a temporary order by agreeing to the temporary terms without a formal hearing.
Discovery
Before you can reach a resolution, you often need further information. The process of gathering information is generally called the discovery process.
Even uncontested cases often have some exchange of information, often in a more informal format where the parties agree to exchange and share copies of certain documents. This commonly includes exchanging copies of paystubs, tax information, and financial statements. If you were able to gather this information before filing, you may have completed this step without the need to request this information from the other spouse.
In contested cases, it is common to request these documents in a more formal method. Usually this includes sending formal documents called Interrogatories and Request for Production of Documents which are formal requests for the other spouse to provide certain information and documents.
The discovery process is often one of the most time-consuming and expensive parts of a contested divorce case.
Resolving by Settlement or Trial
Once you have the information you need to know what you may be entitled to, it is time to start negotiating. Most cases settle without a trial and thus most cases resolve via settlement negotiations. If you do reach an agreement, the divorce decree and related documents are prepared for the spouses to review and sign. Once signed by the spouses, the judge reviews and signs and the case resolves without the need for a trial.
If you are able to reach an agreement on the custody and parenting time issues, then the attorney can also prepare a parenting plan that is included as part of the divorce decree. If you are unable to reach an agreement on the parenting plan terms, then the Court will likely require you to go to mediation on these issues to see if a mediator can help you reach an agreement on some or all of these issues. You can also use the mediator to help you determine the financial issues. However, it is far more common to reach an agreement on the division and assets and debts without the need for a mediator. It is very common to use a mediator to reach an agreement on a parenting plan and usually isn’t necessary to reach an agreement on the financial issues.
Cases that are unable to resolve via settlement negotiations or mediation are resolved at trial. At trial, you present your evidence and have your witnesses testify in front of the judge. Most trials last at least one full day of court time, and sometimes are multiple days. At times, the parties are able to reach a partial agreement so that the trial is much short, such as a half-day or less. If the case goes to trial, the judge has time to make a decision after the trial. Most decisions are released months after the trial has completed. Considering that you also often have to wait a number of months for your trial date due to the court’s busy calendar, cases that go to trial often take much longer to resolve than cases that resolve by settlement.
Other Hearings
There are many other types of hearings that may occur as part of your divorce case. Status hearings are common and some judges use these more than others to keep track of their cases. In fact, some judges will routinely set a status hearing a number of months out as soon as your divorce case is served. If the case is not settled by that that time, the Court will expect you to appear and let the Court know the status as to resolving the case or setting the case for a trial date.
While the temporary hearing and status hearings are the most common, you may have other hearings and motions heard before the Judge depending on the specific facts of your case and what is being contested. While the most contested cases can have many, many hearings, most cases do not. Besides status hearings, often only a hearing or two is all that is common even in contested divorce cases.
Common Challenges and Considerations
Emotional and Practical Concerns
Filing for divorce in Nebraska can be emotionally taxing. Feelings of fear, sadness, uncertainty, and anxiety are common during the initial stages. Support systems such as counseling, friends, and family can provide guidance and reassurance.
Financial and logistical planning is another important aspect. Gather what financial information you can before filing. Have a plan with what you do know before you file. Set yourself up for success as you will soon be expected to handle your own matters without the same reliance on your spouse. Divorce often affects household income, asset distribution, and long-term financial stability. Careful budgeting and early planning help mitigate potential difficulties during and after the process.
Impact on Children
Children may experience sadness, stress or confusion during divorce proceedings. Establishing routines, clear communication with the other parent, and some consistency and stability help reduce negative impacts.
Custody and visitation arrangements are established to prioritize the well-being of children while balancing parental responsibilities.
Common Causes of Delay
Common reasons of delay include:
- Procedural Misunderstandings. When a person tries to handle their divorce case on their own, it is common for a person to misunderstand the process and miss an important step. Many divorce cases are dismissed when a person files for divorce on their own and doesn’t move the divorce case forward under the proper steps.
- Delays in Financial Disclosures. Before you can divide your assets and debts in a divorce, you first have to know what those are. Delays in exchanging or obtaining financial information are some of the most common delays in finalizing a divorce.
- Court Schedules. Most judges are very busy and court schedules can fill up weeks and often months in advance. Even when the parties are ready to move forward, it is common to have to wait for a court hearing date or trial date weeks or sometimes months into the future depending on the type of hearing.
While some delays are outside of your control, careful planning and preparation can help you finalize your divorce quickly and smoothly.
Resources and Support
You tend to be at a strong disadvantage if you move forward with a divorce without your own attorney. However, there are valuable resources to help you find an attorney and also understand your rights, responsibilities and the court process, especially when you are in the exploratory phase and questioning whether you should file.
Having an attorney to assist you is your best move. Reviewing legal resources can help you find counsel that fits your situation and can help you gain some background and general information even before your file.
The Consultation
If you are seriously considering ending your marriage, one of the best steps to take is to have a consultation with an attorney. For free or a set fee, the attorney will talk you through the general process and give you advice specific to your case. If you know custody will be disputed, the attorney can give you an assessment about the strengths and weaknesses of your case and some idea as to how likely you are to get what you are requesting. You will likely discuss the finances in general to get an idea as to how they might likely be divided by the Court in your case if you and your spouse disagree. For example, if you want to keep the house but the mortgage is in the other spouse’s name, what steps might you want to take to increase your odds of being awarded the house and being able to afford the house when you are no longer together. At times, the consultation gives you more confidence in filing for the divorce at that time. At other times, you may decide that there are other steps that you should take before filing or that maybe giving marriage counseling another go is the best for you and your children.
Moving Forward After Filing for Divorce in Nebraska
Filing for divorce in Nebraska may seem daunting, but understanding the process and potential challenges provides clarity and confidence. Proper preparation, knowledge of legal steps, and use of available resources help ensure smoother proceedings. Taking informed steps helps reduce fear and supports better outcomes for individuals and families navigating this transition.
Law Office of Julie Fowler, PC, LLO
Trusted Family Law Attorney in Omaha, Nebraska
Facing a divorce, child custody dispute, or child support matter in Omaha? You don’t have to navigate family law alone. Whether you need an Omaha divorce attorney, an Omaha child custody attorney, or comprehensive family law representation, our experienced team is here to protect your rights and your family’s future.