If You are the Defendant in a Family Law Case: Maine Court Forms

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Important Notice: Doing your own court case without a lawyer is hard and not always a good idea. Before going ahead, we advise you to read Divorce and Parental Rights in Maine.

If you have been served with a Divorce or Parental Rights complaint, and you wish to be heard by the court, you must fill out, file, and serve certain court forms. Here is a list of the forms you will need.

We offer two options for preparing your court forms. See the chart below.

1. Fillable forms. These are our older .pdf forms. You can fill them out online, then print. Or you can print, then fill them out by hand. We believe that these forms will work if you have Adobe Reader 4.0 or higher; you can save your forms if you're using Adobe Reader 8.0 or higher. Get more details on using fillable .pdf forms
2. HotDocs interviews. This is a newer way to prepare your forms. It may be easier for you. The links will send you to an online interview on another trustworthy website. You just answer the qustions, then print out your forms. Caution: We are still in the testing phase, so there may be bugs. But we encourage you to try them out. More technical details here

If you are the defendant, you need to file either an Entry of Appearance form or an Answer and Counterclaim within 20 days of being served with the court papers (Summons and Complaint).

• Entry of Appearance: This is the simplest way to respond.  You are just telling the court that you want to be notified of all court dates in your case.

• Answer and Counterclaim: This is a longer form that you may want to file and serve.  If the plaintiff decides not to go through with the court case, you can still do that based on your own "counterclaim."

• Other Forms: Depending on your situation and what the Magistrate or Judge requests, you may need some of these other forms.

Find more court forms.