A Divorce Petition Initiates a Lawsuit
Video Transcribed: What is a divorce petition in the state of Oklahoma? I am Stuart Ericson, I am an attorney in Wagoner. A divorce petition is what starts a lawsuit. A petition is what starts any lawsuit. It kind of spells out who the parties are, and what you’re asking for, and it gets the process started.
So a divorce petition’s going to spell out the names of the parties, who are the married couple, when did they get married, where did they get married? Are there any children of the marriage? What are their names, dates of birth, and where were their places of birth?
And then, generally, in the divorce petition, you’re going to ask the court to equitably, fairly divide property, debt, and of course, settle all the issues with the children, custody, visitation, child support, all those sorts of things.
Now, filing a divorce petition, there are filing fees. You get it drafted, take it to the courthouse, and pay the filing fees. It gets stamped. And then, for the case to really start, the next step is to get it served on the other party. They have to receive the petition with a summons saying you are being sued for divorce.
In the summons, they have 20 days to file an answer. As the petitioner, you have to have proof of service either with a deputy sheriff doing service and turning in proof of service or a process server. That’s what they do.
They serve petitions or papers on the other party. And that’s when the case really does start. Once it’s filed and served on the other party, the divorce starts. My name is Stuart Ericson I am a Lawyer in Wagoner. You can reach me at WagonerLawyer.com.
