You have decided the marriage is over, and now you are staring at the practical question: what actually starts a New Jersey divorce? One document does -- the Complaint for Divorce, filed in the Superior Court -- and the deadlines it triggers matter more than most people expect. Once the complaint is docketed, it must be properly served on the other spouse (the Defendant), who then has 35 days to file a response.
If the Defendant does not respond within that timeframe, the court may enter a default judgment, allowing the divorce to move forward much more quickly--sometimes far faster than anticipated.