The contentious divorce is one of the possible ways of divorce and consists in that one of the spouses requests the dissolution of the marriage without the consent of the other. This divorce is carried out by judicial procedure by filing a contentious claim for divorce. The other type of divorce that exists in Spain is the divorce by mutual agreement or express divorce. The contentious process is much slower and more expensive.
In this sense, it is important to clarify that, once the contentious divorce process has begun, it is possible that an agreement will be reached and the divorce will become by mutual agreement. Likewise, the opposite may be given, that after starting a divorce by mutual agreement, you finally have to resort to the courts because no agreement has been reached. In both cases, for the divorce application, a minimum period of 3 months must be fulfilled from the celebration of the marriage.
To file the contentious divorce claim, the law requires the presentation of a series of documents such as the marriage certificate, birth certificate and, since, in this type of divorce each party needs its own lawyer and attorney, a power of attorney is required "Apud" act authorizing these figures.
After that, a copy of that lawsuit will be mailed to the other spouse, who must respond within a maximum of 20 business days and then the trial date will be set.
On the other hand, in the contentious divorce process, each party will request different measures related to divorce such as issues related to the children, if any (custody, alimony, visitation…), the use of the family home, the liquidation of the matrimonial property regime, as well as a compensatory pension if applicable. Finally, it will be the judge in his sentence who decides all these questions after the trial.
