What happens if one party won't sign? (Divorce)

Factual Questions
1

I know a couple who are thinking of separating. One party maintains that if they refuse to sign the separation papers that that will force the other party to stay in the marriage. I don’t think this could be the case.

So what will happen if said party digs their heels in and refuses to sign the separation papers? They cannot force one person to stay in a marriage, can they? If it helps, I live in SC.

2

I have a friend that wound up in binding arbitration after almost 2 years.

3

Depends on the state. My state has no fault divorce, only one signature is required. The other party just needs to be served.

4

South Carolina is not a no fault state, according to Google. Does that mean that person #2 would be just forced to stay married to person #1 forever? That doesn’t seem right.

5

Here, anyway, the person that wants out must petition the court for relief. A summons to appear in court is then issued to the person that won’t sign. Then it’s in the judge’s hands, but if the judge determines that one person really, really wants out, he/she will normally grant the divorce and dictate any division of property.

If the non-signer doesn’t show up in court, something called(I think) a decree pro confesso is ordered, and the divorce is finalized.

I am not a lawyer and I’ve never wanted to be one. I do, however, have a friend who got divorced as described above.

6

Of course not, this is America. From here:

To file for divorce in South Carolina, either you or your spouse must be a resident of South Carolina for at least one year unless both of you are residents, and then the requirement is three months. You must wait 90 days from the time of filing for a divorce to the time of your final decree of divorce.

There is one no-fault ground and four additional fault grounds upon which to obtain a divorce in South Carolina. The no-fault ground is based on living separate and apart for one year. The four fault grounds are:

* Adultery
* Alcoholism and/or drug addition
* Physical abuse or reasonable apprehension of physical abuse
* Willful desertion for one year

The legal divorce process begins when one spouse files a “Complaint for Divorce.” You may file for divorce in the county where:

* Your spouse lives
* You live if your spouse does not live in South Carolina
* You and your spouse last lived together if you are both currently living in South Carolinaj

So, assuming none of the fault grounds occurred, all s/he has to do is file and move out. A year later, done.

7

My husband refuses to move out or separate. Separating means that we would have had to sign and file a piece of paper as to what we were agreeing on regarding kids, property, etc. He refuses to do any of that.

I had to hire a lawyer to serve him with papers that said I had started divorce proceedings. Then I waited 20 days, to give him a chance to respond as to his intentions, then if no response you wait 20 more days JIC.

Then your lawyer files a second piece of paper that in a couple of months a judge decides ‘yes divorce will go through’, and this person gets that. IIRC, after he gets served with the results from the second paper he has 10 days to move out.
My lawyer has told me I can get him out of the house in 24 hours if file a restraining order against him for trying to get physically affectionate with me. As I am not quite the crazy bitch (yet) I won’t be going that route, at great cost to my own sanity.

Then we will be going to family court to decide child support.

IANAL, IANyourL, etc., you can learn more about the law by reading the back of a cereal box than you can by reading my post.

8

Here are some previous threads on this question: