Fulton County Divorce
Retain an attorney who is familiar with the Fulton County Family Law Courts
Is your case going to be filed in Fulton County, Georgia? If so, you will need to be prepared for Fulton County s particular way of handling domestic cases.
The Fulton County Superior Court, unlike the other major metropolitan counties in Georgia, has a dedicated family law court, the Fulton County Superior Court Family Division. The Family Division has, at anyone time, three Superior Court Judges who rotate from their regular role in the superior court to act exclusively as family law judges for a period of months. As of the latest revision of this page, the Judge s on the Family Law Court are Judge Doris Downs, Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane, and Judge Wendy Shoob.
In Fulton County, at the time a Complaint for Divorce, or nearly any other domestic relations matter, is filed the parties are required to provide certain basic financial information to both the courts, and the opposing party. Specifically, at the time of filing any action for temporary or permanent child support, alimony, equitable division of property, modification of child support or alimony or attorneys fees, the filing party shall file with the Clerk of Court the affidavit specifying his or her financial circumstances in the form set forth herein and, in cases involving child support, the schedules required by O.C.G.A. § 19-6-15 (effective January 1, 2007, as thereafter amended or revised), and shall serve the same upon the opposing party.
The Domestic Relations Financial Affidavit contemplated by this rule should be filled out when you file your complaint.
If you plan on hiring an attorney, you might attempt to fill out this affidavit prior to your initial consultation with him or her. It will be very useful in estimating a likely amount of child support that could be ordered in your case.
Once you have filed your divorce, or a domestic relations case in the Family Law Division, the Clerk of Court will hand you several documents, the Domestic Relations Initiation Packet Fulton County Superior Court Family Division and a date for a 30 day status conference .
Fulton County requires that the documents in the packet be completed, and served on the other party, at or before the 30 days status conference.
You will need to fill out the following documents from the Domestic Relations Packet:
Domestic Relations Case filing Information Form
Required Documents to be Produced.
Automatic Domestic Standing Order
Note:
When the Respondent (the other side) receives your Complaint of Divorce from the Sheriff they are going to get a copy of this packet as well.
They will also need to fill out the documents that are included in the packet.
In addition to the documents that are required to be filled out and brought to your first hearing the packet includes, Information About the 30-day Scheduling Conference and 60-day Scheduling Conference , and Information About a Request to Postpone or Reschedule a Scheduling Conference. These documents are informative in nature and there is no need to fill them out.
The packet further includes a 30-Day Joint Compliance Certificate , you will only need to fill this document out if there is an agreement to postpone or continue the 30-day Scheduling Conference.
Calculating Child Support
The process of calculating child support is a rather technical endeavor. We hope to produce a YouTube video explaining the basics of how to enter data and evaluate the results generated by the child support calculator. Please note the Family Division does not provide either child support tables or a link to the calculator with their Domestic Relations Initiation Packet, however you will still need to bring the printout of
the results of the child support calculator
showing the parents child support obligation to the 30-day status conference. The Georgia Child Support Commission s calculator can be found at the
The Georgia Child Support Commission was created by statute to create and revise the child support obligation table; don t use anyone else s calculator.
Law Office of Martin M. Del Mazo, Atlanta Divorce Attorneys
750 Hammond Drive, #12-200, Atlanta, Georgia 30328
770-935-8999