So my husband filed for divorce. About 45 minutes after he finally tells me that he has done so I am in the bathroom crying my heart out door shut ....... a man slides papers under my door and says God bless. The papers were in deed divorce papers. Now he tells me he either has to have me reserved (because no one actually placed them in my hand or even saw me for that matter) or I can sign a waiver of service.

I am fine to not have some stranger tell me God Bless as he hands me papers to a divorce I am not wanting anyway. So I am ok to sign a waiver HOWEVER this waiver states such things as:

"I enter my appearance in this case for all purposes."

" I agree that this case may be taken up & considered by the court w/out further notice to me."

My husband (who wants and claims to be willing to have an amicable split and an uncontested divorce) tells me this is all "Standard wording" ...........

I was laid of last May. I am 100% reliant upon him financially and cannot afford an attorney ....... but I am not stupid.

Can someone please tell me that I am not over reacting? I believe that in signing this I am signing away my rights, am I wrong?


Thank You.

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Always be careful what you sign! You are right to be concerned. There are waivers out there that basically say the other person can have any order entered and you don't have to get notice of it. There are also waivers out there that say that the Court should not enter any orders that you have not signed or agreed to. It can be really hard to tell a "good" waiver from a "bad" one without some help from a lawyer.

If you can't afford to hire an attorney to represent you, it may be worth it to hire an attorney just to go over your legal documents with you. At my firm, we will charge a client by the hour to review legal documents, but we don't require a big retainer payment (like a down-payment) to do this. You just pay for an hour of attorney time up front. Definitely something to think about.