![Maryland Marital Settlement (Divorce) Agreement Form [PDF]](https://contracts.net/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fdocuments%2Fplaceholder-general.png&w=384&q=75)
This article will help you create a legal Maryland marriage settlement agreement and take control of your divorce.
Customized for Maryland This document may be legally binding in Maryland according to your state specific regulations.
A Maryland marital settlement agreement is a legal document that married couples generally use to specify the conditions of their upcoming divorce. More precisely, its purpose is to record the terms and obligations spouses negotiated concerning child support, parenting plans, or property division.
The parties create this agreement outside of court and do not need expensive divorce lawyers to complete it. They just need to download the marital settlement agreement template and customize it to suit their needs.
The spouse can file the divorce forms with the Maryland Circuit Court clerk's office. They must also pay a filing fee, which is typically around $165. The waiting period is at least 60 days before the divorce can be finalized.
The following divorce laws and legal requirements in Maryland are established to regulate the divorce procedure and provide legal protection to married couples:
Here is a summary of how to file for divorce in Maryland, broken down into six key steps.
The petitioner can file for divorce by completing the complaint for absolute divorce and filing it with the circuit court clerk. The document must include personal information about both parties, minor children, and marriage.
If the spouses do not reach an agreement, they should ask the court to decide property division, alimony, or child custody through this document instead of them. Additionally, the petitioner could ask the court to restore their former name.
Additionally, two more documents should be filed along with the divorce complaint: a civil domestic case information report and a financial statement.
When all divorce documents have been filed, it is time to serve copies of the forms and summons to the other spouse. This can be done in three ways:
The petitioner has 60 days to serve the papers on the respondent and provide proof of service to the court.
The sheriff will file the proof of service with the court directly, while in other cases, the respondent must sign an affidavit of service (private process) or affidavit of service (certified mail) and send them to the petitioner.
After being served, the respondent must provide the court with an answer within a certain time limit, depending on the circumstances. To be precise, the respondent will have 30 days to answer if served in Maryland, 60 days if served in another state, and 90 days if served outside of the US.
If the respondent agrees with the statements from the divorce complaint, then spouses enter an uncontested divorce process and negotiate the terms of divorce by themselves. However, if they do not agree, then the court must make decisions instead of them, which is called a contested divorce.
Additionally, if the respondent wants to present a counterclaim, they can do so by filing a CC-DR-094 form with the court.
Spouses entering the divorce process by mutual agreement and wanting to proceed with an uncontested divorce must provide the settlement agreement. This document, signed by both parties and notarized, will be reviewed by the judge to ensure the terms are fair and included in the divorce decree.
Additionally, a couple of other documents should be completed and filed along with the settlement agreement, such as:
One of the last documents the petitioner must complete and file is the request for hearing and proceeding. In this document, they should state what kind of hearing they wish to have.
If the spouses have filed a divorce settlement agreement, they should ask for an uncontested hearing to speed up the process. The court clerk will set a date and return the request to the petitioner, who must send it to the respondent.
Again, the court needs proof of service, so the respondent needs to sign the request and send it back to the petitioner, who will file it with the court.
Both spouses must attend the final hearing, where they will make statements, provide needed evidence for certain claims, or answer questions from the judge to clarify the situation for the court.
The judge will ensure everything is in order and issue the “Judgment or Decree of Absolute Divorce,” which makes the divorce final. Additionally, the spouse's name will be legally restored if it is requested in a divorce complaint.
