You might think a fast and affordable uncontested divorce in Illinois is going to be delayed by a 6-month waiting period. Maybe you hearing about this waiting period from a friend, or you saw something about it online. If you are worried about the 6-month waiting period, read on.
The 6-month waiting period is the result of the legislature’s paternalistic attitude towards its constituency. I guess they thought that they know better than the people they govern. Apparently, the thinking was that people should have a 6-month waiting period so they don’t get divorce without really having time to think about it.
How insulting.
The problem with this so-called 6-month waiting period was that the 6 months was supposed to be an amount of time that people were living “separate and apart.”
So most people thought that meant they had to live in separate residences for 6 months before they got divorced.
But that wasn’t even true. The appellate court ruled that the 6-month waiting period could be satisfied by people who were living in the same residence, but as roommates instead of a married couple (use your imagination as to what that means). In the real world, sometimes people can’t afford to move out when they’d like to.
As you can imagine, people didn’t really like Mommy and Daddy state representative telling them they had to wait 6 months before getting divorced – even if it mean they could still live in the same residence as their spouses.
So what did they do?
They routinely lied about how long they had been living “separate and apart” in the same residence, as roommates. It’s not like a judge or lawyer was going to research the issue, it would be really hard to prove anyone was lying, so why bother?
That shows what a joke the old 6-month requirement was.
So eventually, the legislature did away with the 6-month requirement for uncontested divorces in Illinois.
In other words, if you are getting a fast and affordable uncontested divorce in Illinois, THERE IS NO 6 MONTH WAITING PERIOD.
Let me say that again . . . .
There is no 6-month waiting period for an uncontested divorce in Illinois.
Long story short, if you want a fast and affordable uncontested divorce in Illinois, there’s no 6-month waiting period to slow you down.
To get more familiar with starting an uncontested divorce in Illinois, check out this article.