The reasons not to date are clear - if you would take your ex back if they showed up crawling on their knees and begging your forgiveness, you should not date - as that would be very unfair to anyone you might date.
On the other hand - if you are sure you are DONE, and would not have your ex back under any circumstances, and have worked through your own issues around the breakup of your marriage - then I don't think it's necessary to wait on that piece of paper.
Most people here are still too new to the trauma when their divorce occurs. But for myself, my ex had an affair 8-10 years before our divorce. I DB'd like mad, we reconciled, we had several excellent years, but as he approached 50 his MLC began. He'd had a couple of concussions (on top of several previouso nes) when he first asked me for a divorce, so I thought it was the concussion speaking. I still fought for my marriage, but when he finally filed papers 6 months later, I was DONE. I knew I had done everything possible to save my marriage, and I also knew that I could never trust him again so I would never reconcile again (third strike thing). Once I let go I did start dating, a long distance thing (which worked for me at the time because I was still going through the divorce process and one weekend every couple of months worked into my schedule just fine. And I've never regretted that relationship - although he wasn't marriage material, and after a year his old high school girlfriend showed up and whisked him away (I could hardly blame him for that, those ties were deep and took him back to a happier time in his life).
He and I have stayed true friends ever since and honestly, my relationship with him was healing in so many ways. He showed me some of what I had been missing in my ex. He was a good and generous father to his kids in ways my ex will never be, he was accepting and intellectually curious. (And the sex was great!)
BTW - he and I met through online dating. It's not quite the same as blind dating as you can get some sense of the person before you meet (although some people are better at this than others - I've had good luck, my friend cannot at all predict who she might like from their profile.) That being said, if you work in an occupation with dateable men, or are involved in group activities where you might meet someone organically, good on you. But for me, as a woman in her early 50's- early 60's when dating, I only met ONE man organically (he picked me up in Big Lots lol) - and although he was terribly handsome and sexy, he was probably the least good match on other counts. It's simply not that easy to casually meet people once you're out of your twenties. Yes, you have to weed through a lot of people online to find one appropriate match, but it's a lot easier and quicker to do that weeding. I can't meet 100 people at parties easily but I can weed through 100 candidates online. I also can learn more about them initially than I might learn casually chatting with someone at a party. So don't completely discount online dating - it IS where most people are meeting their dates these days.
