Many clients come to our office wanting to terminate their marriage, but are unsure of the best way to go about the process.  The quickest and most cost effective way to terminate a marriage in Ohio is by entering into a dissolution with your spouse. A dissolution of marriage is an agreed termination of the marriage, and requires the parties to come to terms on all property and debt issues of the marriage, as well as, coming to terms on all custody and support issues, if there are children.

As a dissolution requires an agreement between you and your spouse, the first thing a prospective client should do is talk to their spouse. Issues such as custody, support, parenting time, real estate, and debts should be discussed. Make sure that your spouse is willing to enter into the process, and that they understand that the end result will be a termination of the marriage.

A dissolution can be achieved through different methods.  The parties can each have attorney’s, one party can waive their right to counsel, or the collaborative process can be utilized.  Before contacting our office, a complete agreement is not required, but there should be a general framework that can be built on to reach a final settlement.

There are no restrictions on who can file a dissolution, with the exception that you must be a resident of the State of Ohio for 6 months and the County for 90 days.  A dissolution can be finalized 30 days after the filing of the petition, and our office can file your petition in 24 hours under certain circumstances.  Clermont, Hamilton and Warren Counties each have different forms that they require for the filing, and Hamilton County requires a parenting class be taken before the dissolution can be filed.

In most cases dissolutions are less expensive than filing for a divorce.  Our office has a flat fee schedule for most simple dissolutions:

• Dissolution without children                                                    $500.00
• Dissolution with Children                                                         $750.00
• Dissolution with Children and a Shared Parenting Plan          $1,000.00

These fees do not include the filing fee charged by the County.

For more information about dissolution, please visit www.andrewicelaw.com  or contact our office at 513.651.4227 to speak to a dissolution attorney in Cincinnati, Clermont and Warren County.