There are several factors a judge considers when deciding whether to grant alimony. These differ from state to state, of course, but they usually involve things like the parties’ relative ability to earn money, both now and in the future; their respective age and health; the length of the marriage; the kind of property involved, and the conduct of the parties. In general, about the only time a judge will award alimony in most states is where one spouse has been economically dependent on the other spouse for most of a lengthy marriage.
After nearly 16 years of marriage and months of soul-searching, Dan Wahlberg and his wife decided to go their separate ways.
The slow housing market has kept Anne Smith-Griggs (left) and Ralph Griggs in place while divorcing.
This spring, Wahlberg’s wife filed for divorce. They hired attorneys and put their three-bedroom Paradise Hills house up for sale. They retreated to separate bedrooms to watch TV and stopped sharing meals.
But even as they tried to disentangle emotionally, physically they were locked in an awkward embrace. Neither could afford to move out.
They owe $290,000 on their house at a time when nearby homes are listed for as much as $80,000 less. They’re behind on the mortgage and are trying to avoid foreclosure by selling the house for less than they owe. They have little money to set up new households, pay off credit cards and cover divorce attorneys‘ fees.
Divorce is rarely an easy process. But falling home values and sluggish real-estate sales are combining to make it particularly difficult right now.
Couples aren’t fighting over who gets to keep the house. They’re scrambling to get away from the burden of it. It’s too soon to see the trend in official statistics; the most recent marriage and divorce numbers compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics date back to 2005 – just when real-estate markets started to turn down from their boom years.
But lawyers and financial planners anecdotally say they are seeing more clients staying married – if only for the time being – simply because they cannot afford to break up.
“Truthfully, it’s a mess,” says Carol Chumney, a family-law attorney in Memphis, Tenn. “There are a lot of folks who want to get a divorce, and the house is an impediment because nobody wants it.”
Judicial candidate David W. Evans underreported his income during his own 2005 divorce and a court commissioner ruled Evans, a bankruptcy attorney, was earning five times as much money as what he had declared.
Evans’ explanation for reporting his gross monthly income as $1,000 — later found by the court to be $5,000 — was that he did not understand how incomes are calculated in divorce proceedings.
On Tuesday, Evans said the court’s findings didn’t mean anything.
“Write what you want to write, but nothing came out of it,” Evans said.
Evans, 41, is challenging Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Harris.
The nonpartisan race will be decided in the Aug. 19 primary election.
Superior Court judges preside over felony crimes, civil disputes and divorces, among other matters.
In January 2005, Evans’ wife filed for divorce in Clark County Superior Court, according to records found during a routine check into the candidate’s background.
In his financial declaration, Evans said his monthly gross income was $1,000; after taxes, he said, his net income was $940. He did not list any business income.
A Broadway mogul whose wife trashed him in a widely viewed Internet video was granted a divorce from her Monday.
A Manhattan judge gave Philip Smith a divorce from Tricia Walsh-Smith on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment.
Walsh-Smith lashes out against Smith in the tearful and furious YouTube video, which has attracted more than 3 million hits. She makes embarrassing claims about their intimate life and then calls his office to repeat those claims to a stunned assistant.
On the video, Walsh-Smith also goes through their wedding album, describing family members as “bad,” “evil” or “nasty,” and expresses concern about eviction from the couple’s luxury apartment.
Judge Harold Beeler blasted Walsh-Smith for her video stunt, which he called “a calculated and callous campaign to embarrass and humiliate her husband” and to pressure him into settling the divorce case on more favorable terms than were stated in their prenuptial agreement.
“She has attempted to turn the life of her husband into a soap opera by directing, writing, acting in and producing a melodrama,” the judge said.
Most states have adopted the concept of “no-fault” divorce. Though it works differently from state to state, the central theme is that one spouse may sue another for divorce without having to prove the other guilty of wrongful conduct. If one party states the marriage is “irretrievably broken” (comparable language used from one state to another), and procedural requirements are met, the court will grant the divorce. The trend today, is for the courts to look at divorce in economic rather than moral terms. Legal battles in the divorce courts have more to do with “how” the divorce will come about rather than “if” it will be granted.
Does it matter who files first?
No! There is no particular advantage to winning the race to the courthouse. The person who files first is called the “Petitioner” and the other is the “Respondent”. Either party can claim the marriage is irretrievable broken, so there is no “burden of proof.” It is also possible, if both parties agree to all the terms, to have one person file and obtain an uncontested divorce.
People who do not want their dirty laundry aired in a court of law open to the public have a new option available to them in New York other than mediation regarding their New York Divorce and how to utilize New York City divorce lawyers.
Collaborative Law is a dispute resolution system that permits the parties in a New York divorce custody equitable distribution or family court matter to settle out of court in a respectful, private and mutually agreeable manner. Other cities are following suite. Consult with your divorce lawyer right away about this new development in the law.
This is how it works. Each party gets to have their own matrimonial attorney, but consent not go and file papers in any Court of Law. Instead, they meet with their lawyers and sometimes a psychologist on either side to work out their goals and objectives in a reasonably short framework of time. Reaching agreements with professionals at the table who have the same goal in mind, getting a just result in concert with legal principles of law gather discovery informally and try to reach an agreement or Stipulation of Settlement that can later be incorporated into an uncontested divorce where neither party needs to step foot into a courtroom. The lawyers will then does all the paperwork to complete the proceeding sand formalize your agreement and divorce.
Melbourne, Aug 12 (ANI): George Lazenby is all set to fight it out with wife Pam Shriver’’s claim for custody over the couple’’s three young children.
The former James Bond actors wife Shriver, a former tennis star, has filed for divorce from Lazenby and cited “irreconcilable differences” for ending their six-year marriage.
The 68-year-old Lazenby said through spokesman Michael Sands that he loves his children “very much” and will seek sole legal and physical custody, reports the Daily Telegraph.
However 46-year old Shriver, who has won 22 grand slams said she would seek custody with supervised visits for Lazenby.
Women’s advocates in New Jersey fear that a Superior Court judge’s ruling in Hudson County will make it harder for women throughout the state to get restraining orders against their male partners.
Certainly abused women need protection and support, but there are many troubling aspects of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act’s restraining order provisions that merit judicial or legislative redress.
Under the law, it is very easy for a woman to allege domestic violence and get a restraining order (aka “protection order”). New Jersey issues 30,000 restraining orders annually, and men are targeted in four-fifths of them. The standard is “preponderance of the evidence” (often 51 percent to 49 percent), and judges almost always side with the accusing plaintiff.
Under the law, the accuser need not even claim abuse. Alleged verbal threats of violence are sufficient, even though it’s almost impossible for the accused to provide substantive contradictory evidence.
The restraining order boots the man out of his own home and generally prohibits him from contacting his children. Men are cut off from their possessions and property, and some end up in homeless shelters. Yet most have never had a chance to defend themselves in court.
Strangers shared the intimate details of their custody battles Wednesday, in hopes of transforming court orders from pieces of paper into action.
The Office of the Attorney General joined with the Texas Access to Justice Foundation, the UTB-TSC’s Center for Civic Engagement, and the Texas Civil Rights Project to host the first of a monthly series of parenting order legal clinics, informing parents who share custody about how to enforce their rights.
At Wednesday’s session, parents asked attorneys Santiago Galarza and Gail Kahn how to proceed if they feel their child is in danger, how to swap visitation days and what to do when a parent is not making child support payments.
For some, the simply talking about their anxiety unleashed tears. “This is an emotional thing,” Kahn said to a woman who spoke of being harassed by her 4-year-old’s father. “It’s OK to be upset.”
The Wednesday clinic was the first in a statewide initiative to provide face-to-face attorney guidance to parents struggling with the technically and emotionally wrought process of sharing children.
“This is an extension and expansion of an ongoing effort to help parents who are having disputes about access and visitation,” said Janece Rolfe, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office. “We know that children need both parents in their lives.”
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