How to Ensure Your Support Order is Feasible

Every divorce involving minor children will involve a child support order. Many divorces will also involve an order for spousal support, if one spouse is unable to be self-supporting after the divorce. Financial support orders such as these are important parts of any divorce but are also often highly contested, spousal support in particular. It is important to make sure your support orders are feasible for both parties. Otherwise, adhering…

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Enforcing Child Support Orders When Support Goes Unpaid

Once a child support order is issued, monthly payments are enforceable. Unfortunately, there is no fail safe way to ensure those payments are actually made. Child support not paid, also called arrearage, must be paid back with a 10% interest rate per year. The only way for child support payments to stop are: If the parental rights are signed over to another parental figure willing to take on the financial…

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What is an Uncontested Divorce?

Couples decide to divorce when they simply cannot make things work anymore. However, while divorce is usually brought on by conflict, sometimes a couple can agree in full with the terms of the divorce and all its components. This is called an uncontested divorce. When you serve your spouse with a summons and petition for dissolution of marriage, along with any other forms relevant to your case, they have a…

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The First Steps in Beginning Your Divorce Proceedings

Once you decide that you and your spouse can no longer make it work, you may be wondering what your first steps are. Your first steps will depend on how you will end your marriage. There are three options for ending a marriage or domestic partnership. You will file for one of these options depending on your case facts and the status of your marriage as it stands. Annulment; Annulments…

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Working Spouses: Can the Judge Order My Spouse to Work?

After a divorce, you or your spouse may be awarded spousal support for a period of time. The intent of spousal support is to provide temporary financial support for a spouse until they can become self-supporting. In most cases, spousal support will be temporary and may have a set time when it will be terminated. In other cases, there may be no set termination date however it may still be…

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Annulments: Eligibility Criteria and Process

There are many different ways to end a marriage. For most people, they will go through the traditional divorce process. Some will qualify to file for a summary dissolution, which is a streamlined version of a divorce for short-term marriages with few assets and no children. Annulments are another option for ending a marriage however very few marriages will qualify to file for one. An annulment is what is considered…

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Knowing Your Worth: What is Considered an Asset?

One of the most complicated parts of a divorce is dividing the net worth of the marital party, which requires taking stock of all assets and all debts. Debts are clearly defined; money or other consideration owed to another party. Debts can be loans, lines of credit, credit cards, personal debts, mortgages, taxes or support owed. Assets, on the other hand, can take many forms. An asset can be something…

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Attorney’s Fees: Who Pays for Them?

Divorce can be expensive, this we all know. It can also be affordable under certain circumstances. Every divorce is different and will require more or less time or efforts dependent on how complex it is. Issues that can increase the complexity of a divorce are number of children involved, custody disputes, business ownership, significant assets or an overall high net-worth. In these cases, it can be well worth the investment…

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