Walk It Through: The Split
Ninety days and thirty days, equal parenting time presumed, and a division the court finds just.
A pharmacist, married for years with one child, decides the marriage is over and asks what it takes to file.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One marriage and one house. Maintenance, child support, and relocating a child are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Equal parenting timeThe rebuttable presumption that equal or approximately equal parenting time with each parent is in the child's best interests.
- Irretrievably brokenThe finding for a judgment of dissolution: no reasonable likelihood the marriage can be preserved, after one spouse has lived in Missouri for the ninety days before filing and thirty days have passed since the petition.
- MaintenanceSupport a court may order to either spouse only on finding the spouse lacks enough property to meet reasonable needs and cannot support themselves through appropriate employment.
- Nonmarital propertyProperty a court sets apart to each spouse, such as property received by gift or inheritance, before dividing the marital property.