When the defendant does not attempt to stop divorce proceedings and there are no issues for the court to decide about the children, money or property. An uncontested divorce is one in which all issues have been agreed upon by the parties. The parties reduce their agreement to writing and it is presented to a Judge at the final hearing.

An uncontested divorce can be achieved by the parties working on their own or through mediators and Collaborative lawyers as well as lawyers working in the traditional context. Often cases which are contested on one or more issues end up being uncontested when the parties settle after a period of adversarial litigation. The vast majority of divorce cases are settled by agreement, but what happens in the course of litigation prior to the settlement can be damaging to family relationships and resources.