Deciding to end a marriage through divorce will always mean a great deal of paperwork that will need to be dealt with. Even if a couple is "amicably" ending their union, or utilizing a "do it yourself" type of divorce, they should still sit down with a legal professional to ensure the process is handled correctly. This might include the drafting of a legal separation document which is either retained by a lawyer in the event of future conflict, or submitted to a local or county court house as a mandatory part of the divorce process. Some states have no need for this, in fact, in the state of Texas legal separation is not recognized at all. This doesn't mean that a couple in Texas cannot have a legal separation statement; it simply means that the court system doesn't recognize a marriage in terms of a separation status.