I was married in March 1977 my spouse filed for divorce in July 11, 1983 the court acquired jurisdiction on august 15, 1983 an interloculatory judgement of Dissolution of marriage was filed Jan 11, 1984 neither my spouse or I filed for final Judgement which the court paper copies I have say one of us must do for the final dissolution of the marriage I have a faded copy notice of the notice of entry of judgement clerks certificate of mailing Feb 17 1984 which is a notice of entry of judgement but neither of us filed that. So was I divorced or is that standard with the courts? as it says on the copies I have that the court can do that but not final unless one of the spouses files. My spouse passed away in Jan 2007 so I want to apply and start survivor benefits with Social security my question is can I and am I a surviving widow or surviving divorced spouse and was I married long enough to be able to collect benefits if neither of us has filed a final judgment to be divorced? I’d like to get his now then get my own at age 70 I am currently 68yrs and 5 months old right now and have never remarried. . Will Social security be able to evaluate fairly on this considering it’s 40yrs and he’s been dead for 16 yrs will they see there was no final judgement filed by either myself or my estranged spouse that it was just a court entry so I can get his benefits until I am 70yrs old?

Hi. My expertise is limited to Social Security benefits, so I have no way of knowing whether or not you were legally divorced under the laws of your state of residence. What I can tell you is that if you apply for widow's benefits, Social Security will require you to certify under penalty of perjury that you were still legally married at the time of your husband's death. So, before applying for benefits, you may want to seek the advice of an attorney or check with the applicable state registrar's office to see if your divorce was recorded as being final under the law.

If you were finally divorced, then you could only qualify for survivor benefits if your divorce became final on or after the tenth anniversary of your marriage date.

Best, Jerry