Filing for divorce generally includes (1) filing the necessary paperwork with the appropriate state or county court; (2) paying the filing fee; and (3) having the paperwork properly served on (handed to) your spouse—known as service of process.

This paperwork generally consists of a complaint or petition that includes the names of the spouses, the grounds for the divorce (fault or no-fault), whether there are children involved in the marriage, and whether the spouse is seeking child custody, child support, or spousal support.

A spouse generally may file for divorce in the state and county in which the spouse resides—or in which the other spouse resides. In many states the spouse must have lived in the state or county for a specified period of time before filing for divorce. Laws regarding this residency requirement and where a lawsuit for divorce may be filed vary from state to state and with circumstances in which the spouses share minor children.

Laws regarding the requirements for filing for divorce are usually located in a state’s statutes—often in the family code or domestic relations code.

In Montana, filing for divorce involves submitting the necessary legal documents to the district court in the county where one of the spouses resides. The initial paperwork typically includes a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, which outlines the basic information about the marriage, the grounds for divorce (Montana allows for no-fault divorce based on irretrievable breakdown of the marriage), and any requests regarding child custody, child support, or spousal support (alimony). The filing spouse must also pay a filing fee. After filing, the documents must be properly served to the other spouse, which is known as 'service of process.' Montana requires that at least one of the spouses must have resided in the state for 90 days prior to filing for divorce. If the spouses have minor children, there may be additional requirements, such as attending a parenting class. The specific statutes governing divorce in Montana can be found in Title 40 of the Montana Code Annotated.