As of December 1, 1997, courts will implement new procedures to streamline domestic relations cases. For example, the new rules eliminate the identifying witness when divorce papers are served. The courts are also going to rely increasingly on the parties instead of court personnel. For example, you or your lawyer must prepare proposed temporary orders. Simply stated, a proposed temporary order is what you want the judge to do in response to your written motion or request before trial. If the judge accepts your proposed order verbatim, the judge simply signs it, making it an actual order of court.

Be prepared to fill in new financial statements requiring more detailed disclosure than the existing forms. If your income, not your spouse’s is less than $75,000, you may file a short form. If your individual income is more than $75,000, you must file a long form. Both long and short forms require your attorney to sign under penalties of perjury that your lawyer has no knowledge of any false information on your financial statement.

The new rules push hard for full disclosure as early as possible. Within the first 45 days of a case, parties must exchange recent tax returns and supporting documents, recent bank statements, the four most recent pay stubs, health insurance information, pension and other investments, loan applications within three years of the start of the divorce. As of December 1, lawyers and parties representing themselves (pro se parties) must meet within 45 days after papers are filed and served to work on a possible settlement or set a schedule for completing the tasks to prepare the case for trial. Of special note: the attorneys and parties must certify that a budget has been established to settle or litigate the case. Perhaps parties will be scared into resolving cases more quickly when faced with the proposed costs.

Another attempt at streamlining takes the form of actions for summary judgment (or a decision based solely on papers submitted by the parties and no oral argument or trial) on complaints for modification and actions to enforce foreign judgments.