You can stop a divorce at any time before the judge signs the final decree, and in most cases how to stop a divorce comes down to filing one piece of paperwork with the court clerk. If your spouse hasn’t formally responded to the petition yet, the person who filed can usually dismiss the case alone. Once your spouse has responded or filed a counter-petition, both of you have to sign off. After the decree is entered, dismissal is no longer available.
Who Can File the Dismissal
The route depends on how far the case has progressed and whether your spouse has participated.
If your spouse hasn’t yet filed a formal response or counter-petition, the spouse who originally filed can end the case alone by submitting a notice of voluntary dismissal with the clerk. No hearing is required and no judge needs to approve it. Most states model this on the federal rule that lets a plaintiff dismiss freely before the other side answers.
Once your spouse has filed a response or counter-petition, you lose the ability to dismiss on your own. Both spouses must sign a written stipulation agreeing to end the case. That protects a responding spouse who may have filed their own claims for custody, support, or property division. Neither party can force a dismissal over the other’s objection at this stage.
In some situations a judge has to formally approve the dismissal, particularly when temporary orders are in place or children are involved. You file a motion explaining why you want the case dismissed and the judge reviews it. Judges almost always grant these motions when both spouses agree, but a judge could deny the motion if dismissal would leave unresolved issues affecting children or third parties.
One rule to keep front of mind: if your spouse filed a counter-petition seeking their own divorce, your decision to stop doesn’t end the case. The counter-petition survives your dismissal, and the divorce can proceed on your spouse’s claims alone. Shutting the entire case down requires both of you to withdraw everything.
The Deadline That Matters Most
Your window to dismiss closes the moment a judge signs the final divorce decree and the clerk enters it into the official record. After that, the marriage is legally dissolved and dismissal is off the table.
A handful of states build in a buffer. Some use what’s called a nisi period, a gap between when the judge grants the divorce and when it actually becomes final. During that window the marriage technically still exists and the parties can file to dismiss. These waiting periods vary widely, from 60 to 120 days depending on the state and the type of proceeding. Not every state has one, so don’t count on extra time unless you’ve confirmed your state uses this system.
If the divorce is already final, your only options are to remarry each other through a new ceremony or file a motion to vacate the judgment. Vacating a final divorce is extremely difficult and typically requires showing the court that the decree was based on fraud, serious procedural error, or newly discovered evidence that couldn’t have been found earlier. Courts treat final judgments as final, and these motions rarely succeed absent genuinely extraordinary circumstances.
With Prejudice vs. Without Prejudice
When you file for dismissal, you’ll need to specify whether it’s “with prejudice” or “without prejudice.” That choice matters more than most people realize.
A dismissal without prejudice leaves the door open. If the reconciliation doesn’t work out, either spouse can file for divorce again later as if the first case never happened. This is the default in most courts, and it’s what most reconciling couples choose.
A dismissal with prejudice permanently bars the filing spouse from bringing the same claims again. In the divorce context it’s rare and usually a mistake, unless a specific settlement requires it. One important wrinkle: if the same person has already filed and voluntarily dismissed a divorce case once before, the second voluntary dismissal may automatically count as a dismissal with prejudice under many states’ procedural rules. That “two-dismissal rule” exists to prevent people from repeatedly filing and dropping cases as a litigation tactic.
What to File and How to Submit It
Every document you submit must reference the case number assigned when the divorce was originally filed. You’ll find it on the top of any court papers you’ve already received. The spouses’ full legal names must match what appears on the original petition, and you’ll need to identify the specific court where the case is pending.
The forms vary by jurisdiction, but you’re generally looking for one of two documents. A Notice of Voluntary Dismissal is used when only the filing spouse needs to sign. A Stipulation to Dismiss is used when both spouses must agree, and some courts require those signatures to be notarized. Check your local court’s requirements before signing, because a rejected form means lost time.
Most clerk offices have these forms at the counter, and many courts post downloadable versions online. You can submit them through the court’s electronic filing portal, hand-deliver to the clerk, or send by certified mail. Electronic filing is fastest and creates an automatic timestamp; if you mail, use certified mail for proof of delivery. Some courts charge a modest processing fee, though many handle voluntary dismissals at no cost.
After the clerk accepts the filing, you’re generally required to serve a copy on your spouse or their attorney, even in an agreed dismissal. If a judge needs to sign off, the clerk forwards the paperwork for review. Once the order of dismissal is signed, the case is closed and the marriage remains legally intact.
What Happens to Temporary Orders
This catches many people off guard. If the court issued temporary orders during the divorce — temporary custody, child support, spousal support, or restraining orders — those orders generally terminate automatically when the case is dismissed. The court loses authority over the case once it’s gone, and temporary orders don’t survive on their own.
The practical consequences can be significant. A spouse who had temporary custody protection suddenly has no court-ordered arrangement in place. Temporary child support stops. Automatic restraining orders that froze marital assets lift, meaning either spouse can access, transfer, or spend joint property without restriction. If domestic violence protections were tied to the divorce case rather than a separate protective order, those disappear too.
Think through every temporary order currently in effect before you file. If you need ongoing custody or support arrangements, those will have to be established through a separate filing. If you need a protective order, make sure a standalone order is in place before the divorce case closes. Dismissing first and sorting out protections later is the most common and most dangerous mistake people make at this stage.
Settlement Agreements You’ve Already Signed
If you and your spouse reached any agreements during the divorce process, whether through mediation or direct negotiation, dismissing the case doesn’t necessarily void those agreements. A signed settlement agreement generally functions as an independent contract. Even after the case disappears, either party could potentially enforce the agreement’s terms in a separate breach-of-contract action.
Enforcement becomes more complicated without an active case. In a pending divorce, the judge can incorporate a settlement into a court order and give it the full weight of a judicial decree. Once you dismiss, that mechanism is gone. If you’ve signed a property division agreement or a parenting plan you no longer want to follow, get legal advice before assuming the dismissal wipes the slate clean. You may need to formally rescind the agreement as part of the dismissal, or negotiate a mutual release with your spouse.
Tax Filing After Reconciliation
Federal tax law determines your marital status based on your situation on December 31 of the tax year. If you dismiss a divorce before it becomes final and you’re still legally married on the last day of the year, the IRS considers you married for that entire year.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 7703 – Determination of Marital Status That means you’ll file as either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately.
For most couples, filing jointly produces a lower combined tax bill than filing separately. If you’d been planning to file as Single or had already filed a separate return based on the assumption the divorce would go through, you may need to amend using Form 1040-X. The IRS allows amended returns for up to three years after the original filing deadline, so there’s time to correct course. A wrong filing status is one of the more common audit triggers.
Refiling If Reconciliation Fails
If you dismissed without prejudice and the reconciliation eventually falls apart, you can file for divorce again. The new case starts from scratch: new petition, new filing fees, new service of process, and a new case number. Nothing from the dismissed case carries over, including any temporary orders, discovery, or partial agreements, unless those agreements survive independently as contracts.
There’s generally no mandatory waiting period before refiling, but keep the two-dismissal rule in mind. If you’ve already dismissed a divorce case once and dismiss a second one, many courts treat that second dismissal as being with prejudice, which could permanently bar you from bringing the same claims.
Acting quickly matters throughout this process. Once a final hearing is scheduled, the timeline compresses fast, and courts don’t always have flexibility to delay proceedings while you sort out paperwork. If you’re seriously considering reconciliation, file the dismissal as early as possible. A dismissed case can always be refiled. A finalized divorce cannot be undone.