Downloading Gregg County Divorce Records

There are many reasons why divorce records like Gregg County Divorce Records are requested for by people. One could perhaps better understand this when one considers that no person could be married to more than one person at any given time in his or her life. If a marriage is still valid and subsisting, then both parties to the marriage could not contract a second marriage to another person. Divorce is the procedure to terminate a subsisting marriage, thus, without a valid divorce, any subsequent marriage contracted by a person whose first marriage is still validly subsisting should be considered bigamous.

A bigamous marriage is, in many jurisdictions, considered a crime. It is thus advisable for a person to be sure that the partner that he or she seeks to enter into a marriage with is either not married or has a valid divorce. To be valid, the divorce has to go through the proper court proceedings, and proper records reflecting such proceedings must be issued by the proper court where the divorce proceedings happened. Although such divorce records are not public records in the sense that they could be accessed by anyone, they are public records in the sense that they are afforded the presumption of regularity, and that any person who would claim that the records are false would have the burden of proving such allegation.

Because divorce records are not public records that could be accessed by anyone, there is often difficulty in requesting for copies of the same. The law limits the number of people who could request for such records only to those who have a substantial material interest to the records, but this does not mean that such records are inaccessible. It is true that the original of the records would not be shown to a person without substantial interest to the divorce, but it is also true that such a person could request for proof that there is indeed a divorce, and this takes the form of divorce verification. Often, such verification is enough evidence to convince a court that there has been a proper divorce and that a subsequent marriage entered into by the person so named in the records is not bigamous.

Divorce verification may be requested for at the state level through the State Department of Health. Such verification would cost about twenty dollars for every verification, and if there are divorce records in the archives, the twenty dollars would answer for the cost of printing the verification letter which could be presented as evidence by the person who made the request. If there are no records, the twenty dollars would answer for the cost of the search and other ancillary costs.

Copies of Gregg County Divorce Decrees may also be accessed online through the use of online databases. These databases provide substantially the same information as the state and county departments charged with keeping divorce records, but because they are internet based, they could provide their records using a platform that is faster and more efficient.