War on Divorce

Anyone got any tips on complicated divorce made easy?

I left my Wife In Aug 2000, Haven't seen her or heard from her since. Now I find out that to divorce her, I have to give up my legal rights to her three children by another man that I didn't even know existed. I just want to be rid of her taint for good. But I'd really rather not spend thousands on legal fees. Is there an easy way out of this?

Public Comments

1. What? You have to give up legal rights to children that aren't yours that you didn't know about? What legal rights? This doesn't sound complicated at all. Just file for divorce. You aren't giving up anything if you never had it in the first place.
2. Did you adopt the kids cause it sounds like you didn't so you have no legal ties to them. Anyways your "parental Rights" have already been abandoned. After a year of no contact it's considered abandonment. If your lawyer is telling you this is what you need to do I would ask why or go find another. It just doesn't add up. As for an easy way well the easiest way is to just sign the papers and pay the fees associated with it
3. Divorces can become very complicated when children are involved - but it sounds like you are not nor have ever acted as a parent to these children. Talk to a lawyer, to be sure this is done right, but you may be able to avoid going to court entirely if you and your ex can reach an agreement.
4. I live in Michigan. I was legally married, but estranged from my husband when I moved in with and had a baby with another man. Most states consider the legal husband of the mother the father of any children born during the marriage and less than 9 months after a divorce is granted. So, my ex was listed as father on the birth record even though I, the ex and my boyfriend told the hospital that the boyfriend was the father. Later, I found that I could file for my own divorce without the expense of an attorney. So, I bought the papers and paid the filing fees. It cost me almost $350.00. When we went to court, we explained to the judge that the child was not issue of the marriage. It was added to my papers and the divorce was granted. After the divorce was granted, I took the papers to Michigans Vital Statistics and had the birth record amended to reflect the real fathers name. Since he and I also married, they even corrected the birth record to reflect my name as informant to be my new last name and if you look at the record, you can't even tell we were not married at the time of his birth. Call the county clerk where you live and ask where to get papers to file your own divorce since not all available papers are acceptable to all counties. Then buy the papers and fill them out, file them and get a court date. When you go to court, make sure you have it on the papers that the children are NOT issue of the marriage and make sure the ex fixes the birth records asap. Good Luck!