So, you just walked out of the Shelby County Courthouse in Downtown Memphis after your divorce hearing. The best divorce attorney in Memphis just helped you win your case and things couldn’t be better. All of the sudden birds are singing, your better looking and the world is at your command.
The next thing you know one week later you and your new “soul mate” have found each other and you’re ready to hop back on the marriage wagon asap. Why not, you’re free and available now right?
Not so fast my friend.
Believe it or not, even after you’re divorced you still can’t remarry just yet. According to Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-4-124, “When a marriage is absolutely annulled, or dissolved, the parties shall severally be at liberty to marry again.”
Seems simple huh? Well both yes and no. It helps if you know that a party in a civil action (yes, a divorce is a civil action) has up to 30 days after a final decree to appeal the courts decision.
Basically this means that you’re marriage is not 100% positively, absolutely dissolved until the passing of the time that the other party can appeal the decision. Again, that time is 30 days.
So hold off on any quick remarriages until at least day 31 after your final divorce decree. That’s when your Memphis divorce is truly “in the books”.
If you have any questions about your Memphis divorce that you would like to ask our divorce lawyers just give us a call at 901-881-6353. Or drop by the Ferrell Law Firm at 2255 S. Germantown Road, Germantown, TN, 38138.
This is excellent! I told my ex-wife she wasn’t legally married to the guy after we divorced.
Thanks for the comment Keith.
I hate to be a party pooper for you, but your ex is legally married. Technically you and her became divorced the moment the judge signed your final decree of divorce. The divorce just wasn’t 100% absolutely positively undoable (is that a word?) until the 30 days had passed after which you could have appealed the divorce. But that didn’t mean the new marriage she entered was invalid. Her new marriage was valid. The only way it could have been improper is if you had appealed the final divorce within 30 days. Then the new marriage would have been void because technically she was still (semi) married to you.
Doesn’t make much sense, but it’s the law. And in the world of Memphis divorce law a lot of things don’t make sense at times.