TRANSCRIPT OF TAPE

(412) 471-7151

Hello. This is Norma Chase. Thank you for calling. First, the bad news. After 26 years, I have finally found it necessary to raise my fee for simple divorce. The good news is that it is still affordable. This tape includes information about simple divorce and about my services; it also contains information about other sources of help. It's about ten minutes long; you may want to have pencil and paper handy to take some notes. If you'd rather just read this message, drop me a note at 220 Grant Street, Pittsburgh 15219, and I'll send you a divorce information packet that includes a transcript of it. (It will come in a plain brown wrapper, there is no obligation, and no salesperson will call.) If only God knows where your spouse is, mention this fact in your note and I will include information about divorcing a spouse who has disappeared. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but it does cost more than a simple divorce.

By simple divorce I mean one which is not actively contested, one in which the first attempt to serve the defendant is successful, and one in which there is absolutely nothing to resolve except the divorce itself. My legal fee, which must be paid prior to filing, is $150.00. The court costs for a no-fault divorce are normally $153.50. This includes a $138.50 filing fee (payable in advance) and $15.00 for two certified copies of the final decree. The $15.00 for decree copies is paid when the court is requested to enter the decree. Accordingly, it costs $288.50 plus certified mail costs to get a simple divorce started. For those of you who aren't ready to file, I also offer a $25.00 consultation. The consultation fee will be credited against the $288.50.

The action is commenced by filing a divorce complaint with the court. A defendant may be served by several methods including certified mail, or may simply sign an acknowledgment of service.

There are, essentially, three procedures for obtaining an uncontested divorce.

If both parties want the divorce, they may simply file affidavits consenting to a divorce at any time after ninety days have elapsed from the date that the complaint was served. The party who is requesting the court to enter the decree (usually the plaintiff) must then give twenty days' notice to the other party; however, this notice can be waived. If further notice is waived, the request for the decree may be filed as soon as both consent forms have been filed.

If the parties have been separated for two years or more, the procedure is to serve the defendant with a divorce complaint and an affidavit setting forth the fact of the two year separation and stating that the marriage is irretrievably broken.

If the defendant does not file an answer disputing the facts set forth in the affidavit, a followup notice is sent twenty days after service of the affidavit, giving the defendant a last chance to object to the divorce. If another twenty days go by without a peep out of the defendant, the divorce will be granted upon the request of the plaintiff. In a few cases the defendant may agree that a divorce is appropriate but may persuade the court that the divorce should be delayed until property or alimony issues between the parties have been resolved. It is important to remember that a divorce based on a two-year separation is not automatic and not always as quick as the plaintiff would like it to be.

In either type of no-fault divorce, it is usually a week to ten days from the time the court is requested to sign the decree to the time the decree is actually signed. No court appearance is necessary.

Where the parties have not been separated for two years, one party wants the divorce and the other party won't sign a consent form but won't actively contest either, a divorce on fault grounds may be obtained. The most common ground used is indignities. An appearance at a brief court hearing is necessary, and $43.00 additional court costs are charged for that hearing. The hearing date will be three to six weeks from the date that the court is requested to schedule it. Unless the defendant gets off his or her gluteus maximus and shows up at the hearing or takes other action to oppose the divorce, ten minutes of testimony will be taken and the divorce will usually be granted two to three weeks after the hearing. For those of you who are old enough to remember, this was the civilized way of getting divorced before the no-fault divorce law was passed.

The filing of your divorce will not appear in the newspaper. However, the granting of your divorce will. The only way to keep the granting of your divorce a secret is to finalize it during a newspaper strike.

A woman may resume her former name after the divorce is filed by filing a notarized form with the court. This costs $8.00 and this price includes a certified copy.

For matters that go beyond simple divorce, such as property division, alimony, support, or custody, my fee is $60.00 an hour for out-of-court time. This is over and above the base rate of $150.00. My fees for court appearances are usually charged per appearance rather than per hour; routine support hearings are $250.00. This is expected to be paid in advance.

The Allegheny County Bar Foundation has a special panel of volunteer attorneys who handle routine divorces for those who cannot even afford generic private counsel. If my fees are out of your price range, you may want to contact the Bar Foundation at (412) 391-3817 or (412) 402-6714 to see if you qualify.

If your problem involves physical abuse, you should be aware that Neighborhood Legal Services Association can start a Protection From Abuse action for you regardless of your income level; you do not have to be indigent to get a preliminary ten- day order through NLS. Check your telephone directory for the NLS office nearest to you. If you are not indigent, you may need private counsel for the final hearing that takes place ten days after the preliminary order is entered. My fee for final PFA hearings is $200.00, payable in advance. You may also wish to call the Women's Center and Shelter at 687-8005 for information about the resources available to abuse victims.

If support is your major concern right now, you don't need a lawyer or even a filing fee just to file for support and get a hearing date -- go to the fourth floor of the Family Court Center at 440 Ross Street in downtown Pittsburgh to file. This is the old jail building. The support order will only be retroactive to the date you filed.

In cases that involve more than simple divorce, the amount of my legal fee required to be paid in advance may be more than the $150.00 base rate. The filing fee will also be higher if claims other than divorce are raised in the papers; each additional count adds $15.00 to the filing fee. If you are interested in retaining my services, call me at 471-2946. This number is answered electronically 24 hours a day. Again, thank you for calling.