This process is called getting a divorce “pro se” which is a Latin term that essentially means moving forward on your own as in you do not have legal representation and the first thing that I would encourage you to do is to go to www.scbar.org. That’s South Carolina Bar dot org and that’s a website for the South Carolina Bar Association which is the association that governs lawyers in the State of South Carolina.
If you look in the lower left hand corner of the website, you will see that there’s a packet that is specifically for people who want to move forward and get a divorce pro se.
The basis that you will be moving forward under South Carolina law is living separate and apart for one calendar year. What I mean by that is that both the husband and the wife are going to have to live separate and apart. Somebody is going to have to get an apartment and they’re going to have to move out of the marital home and they’re going to have to establish that they’re no longer residing with one another and they’re going to have to be able to prove that with an independent witness in court that they have lived separate and apart for more than one year.
The reason being is South Carolina as a state wants to encourage people to remain married and they want to give them a cooling off period and some time to think about whether they actually want to move forward and get a divorce or not. So that’s why you actually have to wait a year.
An important thing to note, when people call me, a lot of times they’re looking to get a divorce but they don’t have the necessary means financially to be able to afford it. So that’s why I’m giving this information out.
They can move forward under this basis and essentially pay the court costs and paperwork, administrative overhead and spare themselves the cost of actually getting a lawyer if they use this particular means to do so. The downside is it really boils down to where you have a husband and a wife who don’t have any children and essentially don’t have very much in the way of marital property because those are the things that tend to complicate divorces.
It’s really just where you’ve got two people who want the state to dissolve their civil union and they really don’t have a lot between them except the romantic interlude that has ended unfortunately and they’re just looking for a resolution to that.
The last point that we need to consider is something that people run into a good bit factually when they’re calling me about divorces and that’s if you’re in a situation where you’ve living separate and apart from your husband and/or wife, and you reconcile – by reconcile, I mean that the husband and/or wife comes over and they spend the night or you guys decide to try to get back together and you spend two weeks together, living at home and then you realize, wait a minute, this isn’t working out.
When you reconcile, it restarts the clock and that means that you have to again demonstrate that you guys are living separate and apart for one calendar year. So it’s important if you do decide to make this step and move forward on your own that you kind of go with your gut and you stick to your guns.
You live separate and apart. You fulfill the obligations required by the state and you move forward with the paperwork.
If you have additional questions regarding divorce or other legal matters call the Hartman Law Firm today at 843-300-7600.
