What is the First Step to Getting a Divorce

The first legal step to getting a divorce in Alabama is filing a Complaint for Divorce in the circuit court — but the first real step happens before any paperwork exists: deciding whether your divorce will be contested or uncontested. That single fork determines what you file, what it costs, how long it takes, and what your next three moves should be. Get that decision right and the rest of the process is a checklist. Get it wrong — or skip it and start grabbing forms — and you can burn months and thousands of dollars finding your way back.

This guide walks through the whole opening sequence in order: the requirements you have to meet before anyone can file, the contested-versus-uncontested decision, the different first steps each path demands, what actually goes in the Complaint, what happens right after filing, and the mistakes that cost people the most in the first few weeks.

Step Zero: Make Sure You Can File in Alabama at All

Two threshold requirements come before everything else.

Residency. If your spouse lives outside Alabama, you must have been a resident of Alabama for at least six months before filing. When both spouses live here, residency is rarely an issue — but for military families, recent transplants, and separated couples spread across state lines, this rule decides whether Alabama is even the right state for your case.

Grounds. Every Complaint has to state a legal reason for the divorce. Alabama recognizes no-fault grounds — incompatibility of temperament and irretrievable breakdown of the marriage — alongside traditional fault grounds like adultery, abandonment, and cruelty. The overwhelming majority of divorces, contested and uncontested alike, proceed on no-fault grounds, because proving fault is expensive and usually unnecessary. Fault still matters strategically in some contested cases, since Alabama allows misconduct to influence property division and alimony. But nobody has to prove wrongdoing just to get divorced here.

There is also a timing rule to know from day one: Alabama imposes a mandatory thirty-day waiting period between the filing of the Complaint and the entry of any final divorce decree. Even the fastest, most agreed divorce in the state has a thirty-day minimum runway. Build it into your expectations now.

The Fork in the Road: Contested or Uncontested?

Everything about your first steps depends on one question: do you and your spouse agree — or can you get to agreement — on all the terms of the divorce? That means the division of property and debts, and, if you have children, custody, visitation, and child support.

If the answer is yes, you have an uncontested divorce: both spouses sign a settlement agreement laying out the terms, the paperwork is filed together, no one testifies against anyone, and in most counties no one ever appears in court. Uncontested divorces are dramatically cheaper — our flat fee is $690 plus the county filing fee without minor children of the marriage, or $890 plus the filing fee with minor children — and dramatically faster, typically wrapping up within about four to ten weeks after filing, with the thirty-day waiting period running inside that window.

If the answer is no — there is a genuine dispute about the house, the retirement, the kids, or the divorce itself — you have a contested divorce: a real lawsuit with discovery, hearings, and potentially a trial, where retainers typically start around $4,000 and bill hourly. Contested cases routinely run many months to more than a year.

Here is the part people miss: this is not a fixed fact about your marriage, it is a negotiation outcome. Plenty of couples who start out furious end up uncontested once they see the price tag of fighting, and a single unresolved issue — one truck, one account, one holiday schedule — is all it takes to make a divorce contested. If you are close to agreement, closing that last gap before filing is the highest-value work you can do in the entire process. Not sure which side of the line you fall on? Our do I qualify page walks through the test in a few minutes.

Your First Steps If the Divorce Will Be Uncontested

The uncontested path front-loads the conversation and back-loads the paperwork. In order:

• Reach actual agreement on the big four. Property, debts, custody, and support. “We’ll figure it out later” is not agreement — the settlement agreement has to spell out who gets the house, who refinances, who claims the kids on taxes, what the visitation schedule is. Specificity now prevents contempt petitions later.
• Call the attorney once you are close. One lawyer prepares the paperwork for the filing spouse (the other spouse can have it reviewed independently), drafts the Complaint and settlement agreement in language the judge will actually accept, and files everything. This is where legal sufficiency matters: judges reject homemade agreements that are missing required terms, and a rejected filing costs you weeks.
• Gather the basics. Full legal names, addresses, the marriage date and separation date, the children’s names and birthdates, and a working list of assets and debts. For an uncontested case, that is most of what the paperwork needs.
• Handle it remotely if you want. The entire uncontested process — consultation, payment, e-signatures, document exchange — can be done by phone and email without either spouse setting foot in an office or courtroom in most counties. Our how it works page lays out the sequence step by step.

Your First Steps If the Divorce Will Be Contested

The contested path rewards preparation before filing, because the case starts adversarial and stays that way.

• Talk to a lawyer before you do anything else. Before you move out, before you move money, before you announce anything. Early moves in a contested divorce have consequences people do not see coming — leaving the marital home can affect temporary possession, and draining an account to “protect” it reads very differently to a judge than it felt in the moment. Get advice first, act second.
• Gather financial records while you have access. Tax returns for the last few years, pay stubs, bank and retirement statements, mortgage and vehicle documents, credit card statements, business records if either spouse owns one. Documents have a way of becoming hard to find after a Complaint is served. Copies now save subpoenas later.
• Understand the fee structure you are signing up for. Contested divorces run on retainers billed hourly, and how that actually works — where the money sits, what happens when it runs low — is worth understanding before you sign a fee agreement. We wrote a full breakdown in our guide to flat fees versus retainers in divorce.
• Go quiet on social media. Everything you post from now until the decree is potential evidence — the new purchases, the night out, the venting. Assume the judge will read it, because opposing counsel will make sure of it.
• If safety is an issue, that comes first. Where there is abuse, a protection from abuse petition can put court orders in place immediately, before and alongside the divorce. Speed matters more than strategy in those cases.

Filing the Complaint: What Actually Starts the Case

The Complaint for Divorce is the document that opens the case, and it gets filed in the circuit court — Alabama’s trial court of general jurisdiction, which every county has. Venue rules decide which county: you file where the defendant resides, where the spouses lived when they separated, or, if your spouse no longer lives in Alabama, in your own county.

The Complaint itself states the names, ages, and residency of both spouses; the marriage and separation dates; the names and birthdates of minor children; the grounds for divorce; an acknowledgment that there are assets and debts to divide; and a request for the relief you want. The spouse who files is the plaintiff; the other spouse is the defendant — labels that carry no advantage and no accusation, just a record of who filed first.

Filing comes with a filing fee paid to the clerk, and the amount genuinely varies from county to county — sometimes by a couple hundred dollars. Our county-by-county guide to Alabama divorce filing fees has the current numbers for every county we file in. In an uncontested case, the settlement agreement and the supporting documents are filed along with the Complaint as one package; in a contested case, the Complaint goes in alone and the fight follows.

After filing, the defendant has to be served — by sheriff, process server, or certified mail — and has thirty days from service to answer. In uncontested divorces, service is a formality: the defendant signs an acceptance and answer as part of the agreed paperwork, which is why agreed defendants never experience “being served” at all. Most counties now accept the entire filing electronically through AlaFile, which is why the modern uncontested divorce usually involves no courthouse trip for anyone.

What Happens Right After You File

In an uncontested case: the file goes to the judge, the thirty-day waiting period runs, and once it has passed the judge reviews the agreement and signs the final decree — usually somewhere in that four-to-ten-week window overall. The decree is the document that legally ends the marriage and makes every term of your agreement an enforceable court order.

In a contested case: the early weeks are about temporary arrangements and information. Either spouse can ask for pendente lite relief — temporary custody, support, and possession of the home while the case is pending — and for orders freezing the finances so nobody drains accounts or changes beneficiaries mid-case. Then discovery begins: document requests, interrogatories, depositions in bigger cases. Most contested divorces settle before trial, often at mediation, but the ones that do not end with a judge deciding every disputed issue after a trial.

What If Your Spouse Won’t Participate — or Can’t Be Found?

A question that stops many people from ever taking the first step: “my spouse will never sign anything — can I even get divorced?” Yes. Nobody can stay married to you against your will in Alabama. A spouse who refuses to participate does not block the divorce; they just change its shape.

If your spouse is served and simply ignores the case — no answer, no lawyer, no appearance — the case does not stall. After the thirty-day answer window passes, you can move for a default judgment, and the court can grant the divorce and rule on the issues based on your filings and evidence. Refusing to engage is not a veto; in practice it usually just means the refusing spouse forfeits their say in the terms.

If your spouse genuinely cannot be located — gone for years, no known address, no response at any last-known contact — Alabama allows service by publication after a diligent search, meaning notice runs in a newspaper for the required period and the case proceeds. Publication divorces have real limits on what the court can order beyond the divorce itself, but they end the marriage. Either way, “my spouse won’t cooperate” belongs on the list of problems a lawyer solves routinely, not reasons to stay stuck.

The Mistakes That Cost People the Most in the First Weeks

A short list from years of watching the same errors repeat. Filing DIY forms that get rejected for legal insufficiency — the county packet looks simple until the judge bounces it and the do-over eats a month. Moving out of the marital home without advice in a contested custody case. Moving money in ways that look like concealment. Posting the divorce, the grievances, or the new relationship on social media. Agreeing verbally to terms and assuming the agreement means something before it is signed and filed. And the biggest one: waiting months to talk to anyone because the first step felt overwhelming, while accounts, evidence, and options quietly deteriorated. A consultation does not commit you to filing — it just replaces guesses with a plan. And for uncontested divorces and probate matters, the phone consultation costs nothing, so the only thing waiting protects is the problem.

Common Questions About Starting a Divorce in Alabama

Do I have to hire a lawyer to file for divorce?
No — Alabama lets you represent yourself. But the judge holds your paperwork to the same standard as a lawyer’s, and legally insufficient filings get rejected even when both spouses agree on everything. Given that a full-service uncontested divorce costs $690 or $890 plus the filing fee, most people find the math favors getting it done right once.

Can I start the process without my spouse knowing?
You can consult a lawyer, gather documents, and prepare a Complaint entirely confidentially. Your spouse finds out when they are served — there is no legal requirement to warn anyone you are considering divorce. In uncontested cases it works the opposite way: both spouses are involved from the start, because the agreement is the filing.

How much does it cost to start?
An uncontested divorce is the flat fee — $690 without minor children of the marriage or $890 with minor children — plus the county filing fee. A contested divorce starts with a retainer, typically around $4,000 and up, billed hourly against the work. The filing fee itself varies by county and is paid when the Complaint is filed.

How long does the whole thing take?
Uncontested: usually four to ten weeks from filing to signed decree, with the mandatory thirty-day waiting period inside that. Contested: several months to more than a year, depending on the issues, the county’s docket, and how hard both sides fight.

Do we have to be separated for a certain time before filing?
No. Alabama has no mandatory separation period before a no-fault divorce — you can file while still living under the same roof, and plenty of uncontested couples do exactly that for financial reasons. The separation date matters for other things, like venue and untangling finances, but there is no waiting-to-file requirement.

Can my spouse and I use the same lawyer?
One lawyer cannot represent both spouses — that is a conflict of interest. In an uncontested divorce, the attorney represents the filing spouse and prepares the paperwork; the other spouse is free to have their own lawyer review the agreement before signing, and it is often smart to do so.

Take the First Step With a Local Alabama Divorce Lawyer

Whether your divorce will be a four-page agreement or a two-year fight, the opening moves set up everything that follows — and the cheapest mistakes to fix are the ones you never make. The Alabama divorce lawyers at The Harris Firm LLC handle contested and uncontested divorces in nearly every county in the state from our offices in Birmingham, Chelsea, Huntsville, and Montgomery, and phone consultations for uncontested divorces are free. Call The Harris Firm LLC today at (205) 201-1789 and we will tell you which path your case is on and exactly what your first steps should be.

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