A divorce legally suspends a marriage. Courts in the United States at this time acknowledge two types of divorces:
1) Absolute/Fault Divorce: To obtain an absolute divorce, courts require some type of verification showing of wrongdoing on one spouse’s behalf. An absolute divorce is an official termination of a legal marriage.
2) Limited Divorce: Limited divorces are typically referred to as a legal separation Limited divorces result in termination of the right to separate but the court refrains from officially dissolving the marriage and the parties status remain unchanged.
A limited divorce is a legal action in which the court obverse’s a couple’s separation. It is generally used by people who
- Do not have any grounds of an absolute divorce
- Need financial relief
- Unable to settle their differences privately
During a limited divorce, the parties are to reside separately. However, they remain legally married.
- Although the parties are still married, neither has the right to have sexual relations with the other spouse.
- In addition, neither spouse may remarry, nor have sexual relations with another person. If so, this is considered adultery.
- The court determines which party is at fault, if either, is at fault. The court may grant support to one spouse based on need.
- The limited divorce can also resolve questions of:
- child custody
- child support
- health insurance coverage
- dividing of personal property & assets
If spousal support is not required, and there is no property to divide, there is generally no need for a limited divorce.
If one spouse dies after a limited divorce the other spouse may still inherit property. Also the form of ownership for any property you own as husband and wife will stay the same.
3) Conversion Divorce:
Some states permit conversion divorce. Conversion divorce changes a legal separation into a legal divorce after both parties have been separated for a necessary amount of time.
4) No-Fault Divorce:
Many states have passed a no-fault divorce. A no fault divorce does not require a fault or a substantial reason to divorce. In today’s day, not all states have passed a no fault divorce.
The Court may find the following:
- the relationship is no longer possible
- that irreconcilable differences have caused a breakdown of the marriage
- conflict of personalities have destroyed the legit ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable possibility of reconciliation
- Marriage is irretrievably broken
Property Division
During a divorce the court must divide the property between both spouses. Courts today recognize two separate types of property during property division proceedings
- Marital Property
- Separate Property
Marital property is any property that the husband and wife obtained individually or jointly during the course of the marriage. Separate property is any property that one spouse purchased and possessed prior to the marriage and that did not change in value during the course of the marriage. If the separate property owning spouse trades the property for other property or sells the property, the newly obtained property or funds of the sale stay separate property.
Current Division
Current division of property strives for a reasonable division of marital assets. By dividing the assets equitably, a judge endeavors to effect the final separation of the parties and to enable both parties to start their post-marital lives with some degree of financial status.
Most courts at least recognize the following factors:
- Contribution to the accumulation of marital property
- Respective parties liabilities, whether one spouse received income-producing property while the other did not
- the duration of the marriage
- age and health of the partners
- the earning capacity and employability of the respective parties
- the value of each party’s separate property
- the pension and retirement rights of each party
- whether one party will receive custodial and child support provisions
- the tax consequences of the allocations
- whether one spouse’s marital misconduct caused the divorce
Most jurisdictions also give the family court judge broad jurisdiction by providing judges with the right to consider any other just and proper factor.
When assigning property, judges cannot transfer the separate property of one spouse to another spouse without the legislature having previously passed an enabling statute. Whether such an enabling statute exists varies between jurisdictions.
Alimony
Alimony refers to payments from one spouse to the other. A court can order one spouse to pay three different types of alimony:
- Permanent Alimony
- Temporary Alimony
- Rehabilitative Alimony
Permanent alimony requires the payer to continue paying either for the rest of the payer’s life or until the spouse receiving payments remarries. Temporary alimony requires payments over a short amount of time so that the payment receipt can stand alone once again.
Similar to temporary alimony, rehabilitative alimony requires the payer to give the recipient short-term alimony after the property division proceedings have ended.
Rehabilitative alimony is to help a spouse with lesser employ ability or earning capacity become adjusted to a new post-marital life.
Courts allocate alimony with the intention of permitting a spouse to maintain the standard of living to which the spouse has become accustomed. Factors affecting whether the court awards alimony include the marriage’s length, the length of separation before divorce, the parties’ ages, the parties’ respective incomes, the parties’ future financial prospects, the health of the parties, and the parties’ respective faults in causing the marriage’s demise.
If a couple had children together while married, a court may require one spouse to pay child support to the spouse with custody, but one should note that alimony and child support are totally different.
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