US Divorce Law
Matrimony is a union of love between two individuals. The wedlock changes the personal status of these individuals in the eyes of not only the society, but also the law. It is only death or legal separation that ends marriages. Termination of marriage legally is through the use of divorce law. Divorce is a painful process. It causes termination of the family unit and no doubt, the kids come to suffer most from such separation of their parents. Nevertheless, in spite of its curse, this might halt the misery in an unfortunate relationship. More than one million children are subject to this disaster each year in the US alone.
A divorce is a process that legally dissolves any marriage. Most States give a “cooling-off” period to both parties to give them another chance at their relationship. If still differences exist, State allows them to get divorced as it thinks that it will be in the best interest of public policy.
There are basically two types of divorces currently recognized by courts is United States. The first one is called “absolute divorce”. To obtain this divorce, the person filing the divorce should be able to prove with evidence some misconduct or wrongdoing on the other spouse’s part. This leads to complete termination of their relationship and they can be stated as singles. The second type is called “limited divorce” and referred to as separation decrees. Here the status of both parties remains the same and also the relationship is not dissolved by court. It only terminates the right to cohabitate.
“Conversion divorces” allowed by some States, enable parties into a legal separation to transform it into a legal divorce. This requires both parties to live separately for a statutorily prescribed time. Similarly some states have allowed “No-fault divorce statutes”. In contrast to age-old divorce theories, there is no need to show any proof of spousal misconduct to get such divorce.
Following the divorce, the properties are divided between the two spouses. For this purpose, the courts consider two kinds of properties. The ‘martial properties’ refer to any property that has been acquired individually or jointly by the couple during the period of their matrimony. The ‘separate properties’ refer to ones owned by any spouse before marriage. It is necessary that such properties’ value did not change substantially during the course of their marriage as a result of efforts of either the other or both the spouses. Modern courts allow equitable distribution of marital properties while in case of separate properties; the law varies from one jurisdiction to another.
Finally comes the alimony part. It refers to payments made by one spouse to another which can be of three types – permanent alimony, temporary alimony and rehabilitative alimony. Courts allow alimony to help the spouse to maintain the same standard of life to which they have become accustomed. When children get involved, alimony is to be paid to the parent getting the custody of the child. It is important to note in this context that alimony and child support are two different things.
