Get legal support for big life changes
Whether you’re navigating divorce or planning for the future with tools like a comprehensive estate plan, a healthcare directive,
or a power of attorney, we’re here to help every step of the way.
Whether you’re navigating divorce or planning for the future with tools like a comprehensive estate plan, a healthcare directive, or a power of attorney, we’re here to help every step of the way.
Essential legal documents to help protect your future
Essential legal documents to help protect your future
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Healthcare directive
Ensure your healthcare wishes are respected when you can’t speak for yourself by creating a comprehensive directive for medical decisions.
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Frequently asked questionsFrequently asked questions
A comprehensive estate plan includes a last will or living trust, healthcare directive, financial power of attorney, and HIPAA authorization. These tools help you manage your assets, healthcare decisions, and financial matters when you no longer can.
A healthcare directive ensures your medical wishes are followed if you're unable to communicate them yourself. It also allows you to appoint someone you trust to make healthcare decisions on your behalf.
A financial power of attorney allows you to appoint someone to manage your financial affairs if you become incapacitated. This includes tasks like paying bills, managing investments, and handling other financial transactions. Often, a durable financial power of attorney agreement is part of a more comprehensive estate plan as just one of a number of estate planning documents.
An uncontested divorce is when you and your spouse want to get a divorce, and you agree on all significant issues, including the division of property and debts, spousal and child support and child custody. A contested divorce is when you and your spouse can’t resolve disagreements regarding these types of issues.
If you can’t find your spouse despite your best efforts, you can still get a divorce. You'll need court approval to publish notice of your intent to divorce your spouse in the local newspaper. If your spouse doesn't respond to your service by publication, you can proceed to finalizing your divorce by default.
Yes, in most states there are many forms to complete. If your divorce is uncontested, we'll complete all state-specific documents for both spouses.
The time to complete an uncontested divorce can vary significantly based on factors like location, the complexity of the divorcing couple’s family and financial circumstances, and the negotiations required to reach “uncontested” status. But in general, where the parties agree on the key terms—financial arrangements, property division, and child custody—at the outset, an uncontested divorce can typically be concluded in 4 to 12 months, and perhaps even quicker. In contrast, contested divorces, where disagreements exist over major issues, can take considerably longer.
Other factors include the time taken to prepare and file necessary documents, court processing times, and the current caseload of the court.
Here are the steps:
• Ensure you or your spouse meets state residency rules
• Fill out divorce papers, including a petition and marital settlement agreement
• Submit the completed documents to the family court clerk and pay any filing fees
• Legally serve your spouse with the divorce papers and obtain an acknowledgment of service
• Observe any mandatory waiting periods until the court finalizes your divorce
• Obtain the official decree that ends your marriage
Debt settlement agreement
How we’ve helped our customersHow we’ve helped our customers
Very easy in filling out the questionnaire and they did a great job on the documents. LegalZoom had the documents to me...
—Julie C., estate planning customer
Very easy in filling out the questionnaire and they did a great job on the documents. LegalZoom had the documents to me...
—Julie C., estate planning customer
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The support was excellent, and the application process was straightforward...
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