Finalizing Judgments in 2014

Multnomah County Circuit Court has informed us that the deadline for filing judgments and having them signed before the end of the year is December 12th. If your judgment is submitted by this date the court guarantees it will be signed as long as there are no substantive or procedural problems with the judgment. If you submit it after December 12th it could still possibly be signed but it is not guaranteed.

Clackamas and Washington counties do not provide us with a specific date. Generally speaking, though, they tend to be faster at signing judgments than Multnomah County.

Depending on your county and the judge you go to, it may be possible that a judge will sign a judgment at ex parte…and then again they may tell you to submit it to the clerk’s office to be processed in the normal course of business. With that said, if it is important to you that your judgment is signed this year you should submit it as soon as you can so that you leave yourself some additional time in case the judgment would be initially rejected for any reason.

If you are hoping to be divorced by the end of the year and haven’t started the divorce process, you still have a little bit of time (but not much!). The Kitchen Table Mediation approach probably makes the most sense if you are hoping to get things finalized by year-end.