What happens if we reconcile and want to cancel the divorce?

| by Max Soni

Last Updated on October 12, 2020

The processes of separation and divorce put a lot of things into perspective in a marriage. In fact, it is often during separation when couples finally take the time to ask questions, one of them being, “What got us here in the first place?”

When Separation Matters

There are other times when separation is a much-needed time to break out of a rut. Daily life, work, and the lack of time or money make it hard for us to get creative in our marriages and do things differently. When you add to this other stressors such as bad health, parenting problems, or other family situations, the strain in the relationship may get quite desperate. Often, things are resolved better by taking a quick breather.

Now, suppose that you separate, plan to divorce, and then realize that you have recuperated enough strength to give your marriage another “go.”
The good news? It can be done. The process is known as “divorce dismissal,” and can take place even after the papers have been filed.

Steps to Dismiss your Divorce Proceedings:

1. Make sure all of this is done after your papers have been filed.

A lot of couples assume that their divorce papers are filed right away. That is not the case. Sometimes, attorneys have a huge caseload, or they have a system in place where they file specific documents on certain days of the week. Communicate with your lawyer and make sure that the papers are still not filed before you can proceed to ask for dismissal.

2. The quicker, the better

Do not wait until a judgment has been made. Once divorce is declared and processed, the only thing you can do is start over with your partner again, on your own. To avoid all of this, just be swift once you have made the decision to dismiss.

3. Visit your country clerk.

Request a divorce dismissal form. If your partner has not filed a response, you can file the dismissal for on your own, without the consent of the other party. Again, be sure that no forms have been filed or that your partner had not made any hasty decision at some point in the past with his or her attorney.

4. OK, so a response WAS filed

You are still on time. If your partner had for whatever reason recorded and filed a response when the divorce was first decided, all you need to do is get your partner to sign the dismissal form together as spouses.

What Next?

If you suspect that there is hope for your marriage, we strongly recommend that you and your spouse have a deep conversation on the matter and put the pros and cons of staying together under perspective. Communication is the tool that solves everything.

The next step would be to consult with your attorney as to whether those pros and cons are viable. No matter what, the most important thing to consider is your physical, mental and financial stability. Without those tools, you cannot really fix any other issues.

The last step would be to make your final decision and stick with it. Both you and your spouse must be on the same mindset when the decision of dismissal is made. It saves a lot of emotional stress and psychological pressure. If you are willing to be a team again then your decisions should also be part of your teamwork.

Speak to a qualified NYC divorce attorney today, and see what are the best solutions for your in terms of your marriage. You will not regret it.

Emotionally-charged situations often change over time. While the process of a divorce is neither simple nor quick, it can be entered into for a number of reasons that may not stay solid during the proceedings. There are many individuals who go into a divorce feeling sure that they want to bring their marriage to an end, only to have a change of heart as the finalization date gets closer. If you decide that a divorce is not for you, it is possible to cancel your divorce – it is not, however, quite as simple as telling the judge that you’ve changed your mind and that you’d like things to go back to the way they were before.

The Good News

The good news for most who want to cancel their divorce is that you can cancel the process at any point before the divorce is finalized. So long as the judge has not signed the final decree, the entire process can be stopped and your marriage can return to the point where it was before, at least from a legal standpoint. Though there are many steps that need to be taken before the cancellation can occur, you can stop the process at any point along the way.

The Papework

As with most legal matters, stopping a divorce is a matter of getting the right paperwork to the right person. If you want to cancel your divorce after you have reconciled, you’ll need to visit the court where your divorce is being heard and speak to the clerk. The clerk will direct you to the correct forms that you’ll need to fill out in order to stop the process. You may be able to get these forms online, but it’s recommended that you speak to a clerk to ensure that you’re doing everything correctly.

Once you have the paperwork done and filed, you may actually have to serve your spouse with the papers. This is not true in every jurisdiction, but it is an important part of the process in some places. This not only ensures that both parties are actually willing to cancel the divorce, but it ensures that neither party is able to make the decision on his or her own. Once you have the paperwork signed and it is received by all of the relevant parties, your divorce will be canceled and the entire process will essentially be brought to an end.

Important Factors

While the steps above will generally resolve the divorce process for most couples that choose to reconcile, there are theoretically other ways to end the process. If the grounds for divorce are abandonment, for example, one could (at least in theory) void those grounds by moving back in with one’s spouse or by ending the constructive abandonment as specified by law. While doing the paperwork is certainly much safer and makes the process of ending the divorce much easier from a legal standpoint, voiding the grounds can do effectively the same thing.

It is, however, important to note that ending the divorce proceedings can have an impact on one’s future. While ending the divorce proceedings will certainly not stop you from getting divorced in the future, it can make it more difficult to get divorced based on certain grounds. If you were getting divorced on the grounds of abandonment, for example, the year-long time period would reset once your divorce was canceled. Likewise, waiting out the legal separation period or even making it through the six months of irreparable breakdown would reset if the court saw that your relationship had recovered enough for a divorce petition to be withdrawn.

If you choose to reconcile during your divorce proceedings, you can cancel the process at any point before the divorce is finalized. Doing so is as easy as filing the right paperwork, but you should know that doing so can make getting divorced in the future slightly more difficult in some cases. No matter what your decision, it’s wise to consult with your attorney if you wish to cancel the divorce and to make sure that you’re getting all the information you need. While getting the paperwork filed is relatively easy you must remember that you’re doing so on a schedule and that failure to cancel the divorce before finalization can be quite problematic for your relationship.