Petition response requires lawyer?

[arkx2]

I received my wife's petition for dissolution this week; I have 20 days to respond. Unfortunately, I live in Maine and the logistics for getting a lawyer in Florida are a bit complicated. If I file the response to the petition myself, will I still be able to use a lawyer for the rest of the proceedings?

If there are some obvious errors in her petition (my birth year, our daughter's birth year), should these be corrected before proceeding?

Finally, is it odd that her attorney filed the paperwork in May and I am only now getting them? (No, I had no idea.)

Thanks.

 

[dee_dub]

I received my wife's petition for dissolution this week; I have 20 days to respond. Unfortunately, I live in Maine and the logistics for getting a lawyer in Florida are a bit complicated. If I file the response to the petition myself, will I still be able to use a lawyer for the rest of the proceedings?

Yes. You can hire a lawyer at any time and have them added to the record on your behalf.

If there are some obvious errors in her petition (my birth year, our daughter's birth year), should these be corrected before proceeding?

Absolutely, but it shouldn't be done in a "gotcha" kind of way.

Finally, is it odd that her attorney filed the paperwork in May and I am only now getting them?

Not necessarily. It's not uncommon for people to file lawsuits with the court, sit on them for a while, and serve them to the other party at some later point. You're probably not prejudiced by the delay - your time for response starts from the time of delivery to you, not from the time they filed.

 

[arkx2]

Thanks for the answers, dee.

Should I have received her financial affidavit at the same time? It seems odd to me that the instructions for filing as a pro se litigant indicate that all these docs should be filed at the same time, and yet I did not receive a copy.

Since she is asking for the court to distribute property and debts, should I expect lengthy negotiations? Or will the court tally everything up and divide it in half? Before I left the home, we had negotiated agreements on pretty much all the issues, and signed the agreement in front of a notary. It is frustrating to picture how this will go without that, even though I don't want a whole lot from her.

Sorry if these questions are better answered by my lawyer, but I won't get to see that person for a while yet and the uncertainty is maddening.