Kukyc- I'm glad you mentioned being specific about visitation times because I was not planning on doing that, seeing as how he will be gone in Iraq soon for a year and I thought we could 'figure it out later'.  I have changed my mind and we will come up with specific times to add the divorce paperwork because I could totally see him pulling the same stunt.  He can be very immature and spiteful.

RedwingBlackbird- Glad you were able to scare your ex into behaving, that's something I will definitely consider doing if needs be.  :-)  I'm glad to hear your divorce in Hennepin County went quickly.  Unfortunately for me, we just moved out of Hennepin County a year ago and now live in Scott County.  Hopefully it's quick here too.  Thanks for the info about the legal document supply office, I am definitely going to look into that!

Thanks for the great advice guys, it's very helpful!

Emeraldsky:

The X and I (no kids) wound up doing pretty much the whole thing for ourselves because my very, very expensive divorce attorney was criminally lazy. (Her name rhymes with 'Freannette Jederickson', and she did everything that I SPECIFICALLY told her not to, from calling me at work to trying to turn an uncontested, amicable divorce into the Trial of the Century. She also strongly hinted that I should fake domestic abuse!) I did all the documenting retrieving, photocopying, and organizing. If I had to do it again, I would have still hired a scary lawyer, because my X was going to be 'problem' until his law office co-workers warned him about her reputation as a castrating punisher. Then, he suddenly became co-operative. Otherwise, I did all of the work from reading 'How-to' divorce books at the library while I was preparing to file.

From the day I served the X with the papers to the day the divorce was recorded was almost exactly 8 weeks. We didn't even have to show up in court - we just got our decree mailed to us. However, that was in Hennepin County, and I heard horror stories about Ramsey County's court system taking much longer - like about 2 years.

Our accountant told us how to divide up the money (he'd been doing our taxes for 6 or 7 years, so he knew exactly what our assets and liabilities were) and what was marital assets versus personal assets (also researchable in any library), and he pointed us toward a legal document supply office in Prestigious West Bloomington. You can just walk in and buy any kind of pre-printed legal document - he said it was even cheaper than downloading from the web, and that they have forms that are specific to MN and to the counties. I can picture the building, but I can't remember the intersection. It's name was something along the lines of 'T&J Office Supply' or something. Ask anybody who works in a legal office and they'll know the place.

My X and I lived 'War of the Roses'-style until the divorce was fina

My best advice for you, make sure everything is in writting. Especially if you have kids. Make sure you have a visitation schedule in place.  I have been divorced for over 8 years and remarried for 5.  We used the inexpensive way in Florida they offer a Self Help program with court assistance, it only cost about $250.00  Oh sure, we agreed on everything (against my better judgement) and stated visition is liberal...Recently, he kept my daughter after a weekend visit, tried to withdraw her school filed a false child abuse report against me and has not paid me child support in 6 months.  I have had to hire an attorney to do what I should have done 8 years ago.  EVERYTHING IN WRITING...down to the exact times the child will be home.  The night he did not bring her home, I was helpless because I did not have an order stating specifics.  My advice, consult an attorney, if the two of you aggree on everything, split the cost and move on.