# Contested divorce in Pennsylvania and hearing officers

> What a contested Pennsylvania divorce looks like: the divorce hearing officer, the report and recommendation, the 20 day window, and two ways to challenge it.

A contested Pennsylvania divorce is not usually a trial in front of a judge. It is a hearing in front of an appointed officer who takes testimony, writes a report with a recommendation, and sends it to a judge who has never met you. What you do in the twenty days after that report arrives decides the case.

Which twenty days you get depends on which county you are in, because Pennsylvania runs two entirely different procedures and lets each county pick.

## What happens in a contested divorce in Pennsylvania?

The sequence is fixed and it starts with something that has nothing to do with the argument.

- **Grounds first.** The court cannot resolve the economic claims until grounds for divorce are established and approved. [Rule 1920.42(a)(3)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.42.html) says a party may ask the court to hear the ancillary claims, or to appoint a hearing officer to hear them, only after the order approving grounds is entered. The [decree chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/getting-the-decree) covers how you get that order.
- **Then disclosure.** Inventories, then pre-trial statements, on the deadlines in [Rule 1920.33](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.33.html). Discovery in an equitable distribution or alimony case is available without leave of court.
- **Then the hearing.** In front of a judge, or far more often in front of a hearing officer appointed for the purpose.
- **Then the report,** and the 20 days.
- **Then the final decree,** entered by the judge.

### Who is a divorce hearing officer in Pennsylvania?

An attorney appointed to hear the economic claims and recommend an outcome. Pennsylvania used to call them masters and the older cases still do.

[Rule 1920.51(a)(1)(ii)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.51.html) lets the court appoint one, on a party's motion or its own, in four situations:

- Before the decree, to hear the ancillary claims raised in the pleadings, meaning alimony, equitable division of marital property, partial physical custody, supervised physical custody, counsel fees, and costs and expenses, provided grounds under section 3301(c) or (d) have been established and approved
- Before grounds are approved, but only for the limited purpose of assisting the parties and the court on issues of discovery or settlement
- To hear testimony establishing fault or institutionalization grounds, or an annulment, together with the ancillary claims
- After a counter-affidavit denies an averment in a section 3301(c)(2) or 3301(d) affidavit, including the date of separation

The order making the appointment has to specify which issues or claims are being referred.

There are also hard limits. Under [Rule 1920.51(a)(2)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.51.html), a hearing officer may not approve grounds for divorce under section 3301(c) or (d), and may not hear claims for legal custody, sole physical custody, primary physical custody, shared physical custody or paternity. Those go to a judge, and the [custody chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/child-custody) covers that track.

One more rule keeps things honest: a permanent or standing hearing officer employed by or under contract with a judicial district may not practice family law before any conference officer, hearing officer or judge in that same district.

## How do you challenge a hearing officer's report in Pennsylvania?

It depends entirely on your county. [Rule 1920.55-1](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/chap1920toc.html) requires the president judge or the administrative judge of the family division in each county to certify, in writing, which of two procedures it uses. Neither is optional and neither applies statewide.

- **The record procedure.** Set out in [Rule 1920.55-2](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.55-2.html). A record is made of the hearing. The officer files it with the report within 20 days in an uncontested action, or within 30 days of the later of receiving the transcript or the close of the record in a contested one, and immediately serves the report and a notice of your right to file exceptions. You then have 20 days from the date you receive it or the date it was mailed, whichever comes first, to file exceptions. Each exception sets out a separate objection, precisely and without discussion. If you file, the other party gets 20 days to file their own. The court hears argument and enters a final decree.
- **The non-record procedure.** Set out in [Rule 1920.55-3](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.55-3.html). No record is made of the hearing at all. The officer files the report within 20 days in an uncontested action or 30 days in a contested one and serves it with a notice of your right to demand a hearing de novo. You have 20 days to file a written demand, and if you do, the court holds a fresh hearing and enters a final decree.

If nobody objects under either procedure, the court reviews the report and, if it approves it, enters the decree.

### What happens if you miss the 20 days?

Under the record procedure, the matters you did not raise are gone. [Rule 1920.55-2(b)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.55-2.html) says matters not covered by exceptions are deemed waived unless, before entry of the final decree, the court grants leave to file exceptions raising them.

Under the non-record procedure, no demand means no hearing, and the court moves to reviewing the report.

And there is no second bite afterward. Both rules end with the same sentence: no motion for post-trial relief may be filed to the final decree. [Rule 1930.2(a)](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1930/s1930.2.html) says the same thing for every domestic relations matter.

What you can file is a motion for reconsideration, under subdivision (b) of the same rule. If the court does not grant it within the time allowed, the appeal clock runs as though you never filed it, which makes an ungranted reconsideration motion a good way to lose an appeal. Appeals themselves go to the Superior Court within 30 days of the order.

## What does the hearing officer actually decide?

Nothing, formally. They recommend, and a judge decides. In practice a report that goes unchallenged becomes the decree, so the recommendation is where the case is really resolved.

What they are recommending on is the equitable distribution percentage under [section 3502(a)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=35), the classification of every asset as marital or non-marital, values and valuation dates, and alimony under the seventeen factors in [section 3701(b)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=37).

The final order has to explain itself. [Section 3506](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=35) requires it to set forth the percentage of distribution for each marital asset or group of assets and the reason for the distribution ordered, and [section 3701(d)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=37) requires reasons for the alimony award or denial.

That documentation requirement is why the pre-trial statement matters so much. An officer writing findings works from the record in front of them, and the [disclosure chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/financial-disclosure-and-discovery) covers what happens to a number you never documented.

## Can you get a jury in a Pennsylvania divorce?

Barely, and not for the money. [Section 3322](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=33) lets a party take a rule on the other side, allowed by a judge, to show cause why particular disputed issues of fact should not be tried by a jury. The court can discharge the rule, make it absolute, or frame the issues itself, and only the issues the court orders are tried. The rule may not be made absolute where in the court's opinion a jury trial cannot be had without prejudice to public morals.

Practically, that is a provision from another era. Equitable distribution and alimony are equitable claims decided by the court, and [section 3323(f)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=33) gives the court full equity power and jurisdiction in all matrimonial causes.

## What if one party is hiding money or leaving the state?

The court has tools and they do not wait for the hearing.

[Section 3505(a)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=35) allows an injunction and attachment where it appears a party is about to leave the jurisdiction, remove property from it, or dispose of, alienate or encumber property to defeat equitable distribution, alimony, alimony pendente lite or support, plus a writ of ne exeat to stop the party leaving. [Rule 1920.43](https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/231/chapter1920/s1920.43.html) is the procedure for asking.

After the fact, [section 3505(d)](https://www.palegis.us/statutes/consolidated/view-statute?txtType=HTM&ttl=23&div=0&chapter=35) allows a constructive trust over undisclosed assets worth $1,000 or more, on a petition that can be filed at any time. The [high-asset chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/high-asset-divorce) covers the tracing work that usually comes first.

## How long does a contested divorce take in Pennsylvania?

Longer than the clock on your grounds, and the reason is arithmetic rather than backlog. Twenty days for your spouse's inventory, thirty before anyone can move for a hearing officer, sixty before the hearing for pre-trial statements, twenty or thirty for the report, twenty for exceptions, plus scheduling between each step.

None of those is unreasonable alone. Stacked on top of a one year separation requirement, they explain why a contested Pennsylvania divorce is usually measured in years, and the [timeline chapter](https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/process-timeline) walks the whole calendar.

Source: https://www.counselpro.ai/divorce-guide/pennsylvania/contested-divorce-and-trial