Filing for divorce in Wyoming is relatively easy, especially if no minor children are involved, and you may be able to do it yourself. However, if you and your spouse have minor children, then you should seriously consider hiring a Wyoming divorce lawyer.
You need to draft a Complaint for Divorce, and complete a Civil Cover Sheet and a Vital Statistics Form, and you will also need to prepare a Summons for the Clerk of Court. You will then take these documents to the Clerk of District Court, along with the filing fee of $70.00, and your divorce will be filed, and a Summons will be issued.
Complaint for Divorce
The Complaint for Divorce sets out the names of the parties, states the jurisdictional facts, and requests the court to grant the divorce, divide the parties’ property, and sometimes to restore the wife’s maiden name. It is a simple document, and does not need to list the Parties’ property or debts. Here is an example of a Complaint for Divorce with No Children .
Civil Cover Sheet
The civil cover sheet is a form that must be filed with the initial divorce papers. You write in the names of the parties, the address of the Plaintiff, and you check whether or not this is a divorce with children or divorce without children, and then sign and date it. This is an example of a Civil Cover Sheet .
Vital Statistics Form
The Vital Statistics Form collects the information used by the office of Vital Statistics to track divorce information and to share it with similar offices in other states. Here is a sample Vital Statistics Form for a divorce with no children.
When completing this form, be sure to print clearly. In addition, be sure to write out dates completely, such July 4, 2011, and not 7/4/11.
Summons
Once you submit all these documents to the Clerk of District Court, along with your filing fee of $70.00, the Clerk will issue the Summons. The Summons informs the Defendant that a Complaint was filed against them. It also notifies the Defendant that he or she has twenty (20) days to file an answer to the Complaint, or thirty (30) days to answer, if they are served outside the State of Wyoming. Finally, the Summons also notifies the Defendant that if they do not file an answer within the twenty (or thirty) days, then default may be taken against them. This is an example of a sample Summons.
What else is needed to file for a divorce in Wyoming? Well no other documents are necessary. However, you should always make two copies (in addition to the original) of anything you file with the Court. The original is filed, and one copy is served on the other party, and one copy should be kept for your own records.
In addition, if you are filing a divorce with minor children, then you will, in addition to the documents listed above, need to file a redacted copy of the Complaint for divorce.
A redacted copy contains only the initials and years of birth of the minor children. Finally, you must pay the filing fee, which is $70.00. Once you have your copies of the Complaint for Divorce, and the Summons, you can hire a process server to serve the documents on you spouse. This can be a sheriff’s deputy, or a private process server, and the service of process charge in Wyoming is usually around $35.00.