The earliest a Georgia court can grant a divorce is 30 days after the date the defendant’s answer would have been due.
Where the 30 Days Comes From
Two Civil Practice Act provisions set the floor. OCGA 9-11-40(a) makes all civil cases, including divorce cases, triable any time after the last day defensive pleadings were required to be filed, and OCGA 9-11-12(a) requires an answer within 30 days after service of the summons and complaint.
In Hammack v. Hammack, 281 Ga. 202 (2006), the Georgia Supreme Court read those two sections together. The wife had moved to set aside her divorce as premature. The Court held the trial court was authorized to grant the divorce because it did so “well after 30 days from the time an answer would have been due.”
The Court Rules Add Their Own Waiting Periods
Uniform Superior Court Rule 24.6 sets out when an uncontested divorce may be heard: (1) 31 days after service or the filing of an acknowledgment of service, by written consent of both parties, (2) 46 days after service in an unanswered case, unless the court has extended the time to respond, and (3) 61 days after the date of first publication where service was by publication.
Which Controls If They Conflict
The statute does. The preamble to the Uniform Superior Court Rules says they are not intended to conflict with substantive law and “in case of conflict shall yield to substantive law.” The Georgia Supreme Court applied that in Russell v. Russell, 257 Ga. 177 (1987), reversing a trial court that had cancelled a divorce hearing on its reading of Rule 24.6(D).
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