Here in Mobile County, our divorce court is called Domestic Relations Court. The Domestic Relations clerk’s office is located on the 9th floor of Mobile Government Plaza and the Courtrooms are located on the 2nd floor.

We have two judges who handle all of the Divorce and Post-Divorce cases, as well as all Petitions for Protection From Abuse (PFAs). Post-Divorce means all matters related to the enforcement or modification of prior divorce orders.

These judges are the Hon. Walter H. Honeycutt and Hon. Michael D. Sherman. These judges preside over what is probably the busiest court in the state, hearing thousands of cases per year each related to Alabama divorce laws.

There are a few types of divorce including contested divorce, uncontested divorce, and no fault divorce. If your divorce is handled in an uncontested divorce manner, where the parties agree on all terms, your divorce agreement must be on file with the Court for 30 days, then the judge can grant your divorce.

If your case must be handled in a contested manner, where discovery of information is done on both sides and the case is eventually set for trial, it typically took a case an average of 12 months to get to trial. This is when aspects such as child custody and marital property are decided.

Today, trial settings are significantly slower due to the COVID-19 crisis. As such, more cases are being referred to other avenues to assist in settling disputes, including the appointment of Special Masters to resolve discovery disputes and Mediation to try to achieve settlement of the entire case.

More information about Mobile County Domestic Relations Court and Alabama divorce courts, including the Court’s Parenting Guidelines and the Court’s Pretrial Order, can be found on their official website, here: https://mobile.alacourt.gov/domestic-relations/.