Walk It Through: The Divorce Filing
Irreconcilable differences, service, an automatic order, sixty days, and custody by the child's best interests.
After years of separation in all but name, a wife files for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One divorce with children and a boat. Alimony, child support figures, a prenuptial agreement and domestic abuse in the marriage 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.
- Automatic temporary restraining orderThe order that takes effect against both spouses once a divorce is served, barring disposing of marital assets, taking a child out of the state, or changing insurance without consent or a court order.
- Equitable divisionThe court's division of property in a divorce, by what is equitable in the circumstances, whichever spouse holds title.
- Irreconcilable differencesGrounds the court finds are substantial reasons for not continuing the marriage, and one of the causes for which a divorce may be granted.
- Best interests of the childThe standard for custody: the child's temporal, mental and moral welfare. Neither parent is preferred over the other.
- Rebuttable presumptionA conclusion the law draws unless shown otherwise. A domestic abuse conviction or history creates one that custody with the abusive parent is not in the child's best interest.