What Family Law is All About
Family Law encompasses various areas related to marriage, divorce, custody arrangements and property division.
Family lawyers often represent their clients in family court proceedings and negotiate on their behalf to resolve issues. Additionally, they can assist clients in creating vital legal documents.
Marriage
Marriage is the legal union between two individuals who commit themselves to each other for life, often romantically. Marriage entails both rights and responsibilities – such as those related to financial benefits and rights of visitation – for each partner involved.
Marriage allows couples to establish and sustain family units. Its existence plays a critical role in society as it upholds morals and civilization while meeting basic needs such as shelter, food and clothing.
Marriage also plays a key role in maintaining stable kinship networks – something particularly significant in societies with large kinship systems.
Marriage is considered sacred in many cultures and it serves as a religious practice based on principles of love and respect. Additionally, it serves as a sacrament that enshrines a couple’s commitment to each other and their love for one another.
Marriage provides its participants with a clearer sense of their place within society, helping them make economic and social decisions based on the relationship with their partner.
Ensuring sexual relations between partners becomes legal within marriage. Furthermore, marriage legitimizes them as husband and wife and makes their sexuality legally accepted within its confines.
Marriage is an intricate issue in family law and its definition can differ depending on culture and society. Most countries agree on the general principle that a valid marriage involves two individuals of equal gender entering into an legally binding contract between themselves; under this definition they also qualify to access certain government programs like unemployment or means-tested health care services.
Divorce
Divorce is the process of ending a marriage and usually involves legal actions to cancel or modify obligations and responsibilities associated with marital relationships based on local law.
Divorces typically start by filing a petition for dissolution with the court by one spouse, followed by an answer or counter-petition by their partner. This petition also specifies the grounds for its filing and any grounds it might contain for dissolution of marriage.
Many times, both parties can reach an agreement regarding issues like child custody, property division, alimony and support without needing lawyers or mediators for help. This process is called uncontested divorce and may be more cost-effective and timely than traditional litigation.
Couples going through a divorce must usually wait an extended amount of time before their case can be heard by a judge, giving both parties time to resolve any outstanding disagreements and settle matters themselves. This waiting period allows both sides to do just that.
Couples in this phase may become angry with one another for what they perceive as the source of the break-down of their marriage. This can be an especially difficult stage of the divorce process and have lasting impacts on families involved.
If a divorcing couple can’t agree on these issues, mediation or settlement conferences may help them reach agreements through third-party assistance. Mediators provide an impartial environment in which both parties may come to an understanding on these important topics with help from mediators acting as impartial intermediaries.
At this crucial juncture, it’s wise to remain focused on your future rather than dwelling on past mistakes. Doing this will make moving on easier once your divorce has been finalized and will likely ensure the process is a more positive experience overall.
Child Custody
Child custody refers to the right of one or both parents to make decisions on behalf of their children in matters such as healthcare, education and religious upbringing. Legal custody arrangements can either be shared equally between both parents (joint legal custody) or soled by one.
The court will make its determination on child custody that serves the best interest of the children by considering all information available about each party and their children before reaching an outcome.
Sole legal custody may be granted when it is in the best interests of children for only one parent to make major decisions for them. This may be necessary where one of the parents has a history of domestic violence or both parties involved have extremely volatile relationships.
Custody arrangements may change due to changes in either parent’s circumstances, as well as any new circumstances surrounding their children, such as moving school districts. Alterations could affect everything from primary residency (the home where your child will live) and visitation rights to visitation agreements between relatives.
As this can be an emotional experience, it is important to keep in mind that most states utilize a standard called the “best interests of the child”, or BIBC, when making child custody decisions.
Child custody agreements usually include legally-binding custody and visitation terms that obligate both parents to adhere to them, which means if one parent violates these orders they could face contempt of court charges that could lead to both financial penalties as well as possible jail time.
Child Support
As part of a divorce or separation agreement, one parent will often be ordered by the court to pay child support payments in order to help cover basic living expenses for any children involved.
Food, shelter, clothing and health care costs are included among these expenses as well as an allocation towards education costs and any necessary additional expenditures.
Courts often set an initial child support amount, although modifications can be made depending on changing needs of children. This amount usually follows state guidelines for calculating child support payments.
Courts also take into account other factors when determining an amount for child support payments, including each parent’s income, taxes, social security deductions and healthcare costs. Keep in mind that one parent’s income may be imputed to another parent for child support calculations if their income was not reported on tax returns.
Child support payments may need to be adjusted if a parent receives public assistance or becomes disabled and cannot work. This adjustment is especially relevant when medical bills have an impactful financial implication that undermine their ability to pay child support on time.
Parents have an important responsibility when it comes to child support payments after divorce or separation and should immediately work towards establishing it as soon as possible. Child support shouldn’t be seen as something taken for granted and must only be spent on items related to child welfare, not entertainment or vacation costs or as punishment against one parent over another.
Property Division
Property division refers to the division of assets following a divorce or annulment between spouses, whether through property settlement agreements, court decrees or an agreement among themselves.
An attorney can help you understand what property division means for your situation and its potential effects. Property is typically divided through equitable distribution; however, this varies depending on which state it takes place in.
First, your marital assets and debts must be identified, including items like your family home, stocks, retirement accounts and business interests.
Second, you should identify which assets constitute “marital property” and which ones should remain separate. “Separate assets” could include those owned prior to marriage by either partner as well as inheritances, gifts and pensions acquired during or post marriage.
At trial and on the date of separation, it is crucial to establish the value of each asset. You can do this by collecting statements from both parties as well as getting appraisals if an asset doesn’t already have one showing its worth.
After that, you must determine how much of the total value of all marital assets and debts each spouse will receive through property distribution. Typically, a judge will assign each spouse a percentage of total value; then divide assets and debts so each partner’s share equals that percentage.
Property division in court takes into account several factors, including non-monetary contributions to the marriage, contributions made towards their partner’s education, economic misconduct (i.e. wasting or losing marital assets through excessive spending, gambling or fraud), among others. All these considerations are critical if you wish to achieve a fair and equitable division of assets during or after divorce proceedings.