West v. West

Wife appeals the marital dissolution final judgment that Husband submitted ex parte, and the trial judge adopted verbatim. It is well known that adopting a proposed final judgment, verbatim, without any modification, especially with no judicial pronouncements of any rulings or findings, is frowned upon. We affirm the portion of the judgment that dissolved the parties’ marriage, but reverse the balance in its entirety and remand for entry of an amended final judgment.

The parties’ marriage was dissolved after nearly twelve years. The issues for the one-day trial included alimony, child support,…