Has your spouse asked you for a divorce, and you do not feel the same way? If so, you may be looking for ways to slow down the divorce process since the request may have come out of nowhere. You may feel like there is a chance to work things out and reconcile your marriage, and want to prevent it getting further along in the process. Here are a few ways to slow things down.

Know That The Divorce Process Cannot Be Stopped

The first thing you need to know is that you cannot completely stop the divorce process from happening if your spouse decides to move forward and get a divorce from you. It is a legal process, and steps can be taken to circumvent spouses that are unwilling to agree to a divorce. However, it can be slowed down in a few ways to prevent it from happening too quickly.

Tell Your Spouse That You Need Time

The first thing that you should do is simply talk to your spouse and tell them that you need more time to process what is happening. After all, your spouse clearly feels different about your marriage than you do, and sometimes it just takes time for you to be okay with the situation and accept what is happening. You may want to try marriage counseling or other methods to work out the problems with your marriage first before you jump into getting a divorce.

Refuse To Sign Documents

If your spouse has decided to power through the process of getting a divorce, then you can simply refuse to sign documents. This will turn the divorce into a contested divorce, which is a longer legal process that takes more time. Your spouse will be required to notify you by giving you the paperwork through a process server, which takes time and slows things down some more. 

Once you have been served documents, you will have a time period that you're required to respond within. You can stretch this out to the very last day of your response window, which may be 30 days in your state, to give yourself more time.

While this can buy you some extra time, you may still need assistance going through a divorce process. Be sure to work with a local divorce attorney in your area. They can give you more tips on how to slow things down and then help guide you through the divorce process that will be inevitable.