Resources

Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse.

In cases involving children, governments have a clear interest in ensuring that disputes between parents do not spill over into the family courts. One way of doing this is through the encouragement of a parenting plan. In the United States, all states now require parents to file a parenting plan when they legally separate or divorce.

Divorce can be contrasted with an annulment, which is a declaration that a marriage is void, though the effects of marriage may be recognized in such unions, such as spousal support or alimony, child custody, child support, and distribution of property.

Divorce laws vary considerably around the world. It is banned in Malta and in the Philippines, but an annulment is permitted.

Legal separation also known as Judicial Separation is in the form of Decree granted by the Family court to the couples to live separately. This is a step before actual grant of Decree of Divorce.

The couples living under the Decree of Legal or Judicial Separation can unite & start living together i.e. they can resume the conjugal relationship without any legal formalities, but the couples granted decree of Divorce cannot unite & start living together i.e. they cannot resume the conjugal relationship, if they want to they have to marry again legally. This the main difference between a Legal Separation & a Divorce.

Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are sometimes used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.

Following ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in most countries, terms such as "residence" and "contact" (known as "visitation" in the United States) have superseded the concepts of "custody" and "access". Instead of a parent having "custody" of or "access" to a child, a child is now said to "reside" or have "contact" with a parent. For a discussion of the new international nomenclature, see parental responsibility.

Residence and contact issues typically arise in proceedings involving divorce (dissolution of marriage), annulment and other legal proceedings where children may be involved. In most jurisdictions the issue of which parent the child will reside with is determined in accordance with the best interests of the child standard.

Streetkids Rights and Safety CINI Asha has identified the need to have child friendly communication tools for use with street children and adolescents to discuss the issue of child sexual abuse. Their programme reaches out to children through various intervention strategies such as half way homes, drop in centres, evening coaching centres and night shelters. CINI Asha would train its field staff to use these materials directly with children, or their guardians, as appropriate

Reading is Fun! This is an interactive CD ROM to help teachers learn innovative methods adopted under the Reading Guarantee Programme (RGP). It includes video clips on classroom techniques and use of specialised tools, FAQs on RGP methodology and implementation.

Poster on Sign Language IDCS – India has identified a need for raising awareness on sign language. Traditional practices of education of deaf children emphasises on spoken and written languages, at the cost of denying deaf children and their families the option of integrating sign language in the process of understanding and learning.

IICCHAA Toolkit Indian Initiative of Child Centered HIV & AIDS Approach is a project with two basic objectives: 1) to promote communication between parents & children affected by HIV, and help children cope with their current situation. 2) to create a supportive environment for people living with HIV and ensuring sustainability through the formation of support groups at the community level.

Connecting, Coping & Caring A manual for caregivers working with children in difficult circumstances. This publication was developed from notes and observations made during workshops with caregivers from different organisations in India and Bangladesh

Street Children : Awareness "The world through the eyes of street children" was a traveling exhibition of drawings done by street children, showing their experiences and how they perceive themselves; supported by their stories and photographs. The material was documented at Connaught Place and the Chandni Chowk market area in Delhi over a period of 3 weeks.

A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a contract entered into prior to marriage or civil union by the people intending to marry. The content of a prenuptial agreement can vary widely, but commonly includes provisions for division of property and spousal support in the event of divorce or breakup of marriage.

Many countries, including Canada (Quebec), France, Italy, and Germany, have matrimonial regimes, in addition to, or some cases, in lieu of prenuptial agreements.

The United Kingdom as of 2007 does not enforce prenuptial agreements (although there have been some notable exceptions). They also do not have a provision for marital regimes.

There are two types of prenuptial agreements: marriage contract for people who are married or about to be married, and cohabitation agreement for unmarried couples. A variation for people who are already married is a postnuptial agreement, also called a post marital agreement

Parenting is the process of raising and educating a child from birth, or before, until adulthood.

In the case of humans, it is usually done by the biological parents of the child in question , although governments and society take a role as well. In many cases, orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent blood relations. Others may be adopted, raised by foster care, or be placed in an orphanage.

The goals of human parenting are debated. Usually, parental figures provide for a child's physical needs, protect them from harm, and impart in them skills and cultural values until they reach legal adulthood, usually after adolescence. Among non-human species, parenting is usually less lengthy and complicated, though mammals tend to nurture their young extensively. The degree of attention parents invest in their offspring is largely inversely proportional to the number of offspring the average adult in the species produces.

Adoption is the act of legally placing a child with a parent or parents other than those they were born to. An adoption order has the effect of severing parental responsibilities and rights of the original parent(s) and transferring those responsibilities and rights to the adoptive parent(s).

There are several kinds of adoption, which can be defined both by effect - such as whether the adoption is open or closed - and/or by location and the origin of the child, such as domestic or international adoption. Each of these has its own features and rules.

• Child Support Modifications - As a child support modification attorney, Mr. Baker represents mothers and fathers in child support modification hearings, including requests to increase or decrease the amount of the child support obligation. In order to make a request for a post-divorce or family court modification involving child support, the party making the request must be able to demonstrate a significant and continuing change of circumstances that warrant a child support modification, which may include a significant change in income by either party.

• Child Custody Modifications - As a child custody modification attorney, Mr. Baker represents mothers and fathers in child custody modification hearings. In order to make a request for a post-divorce or family court modification involving child custody, the party making the request must be able to demonstrate a significant and continuing change of circumstances that warrant a child custody modification, which may include relocation (especially out of state), child abuse, or child neglect.

• Visitation and Parenting Time Modifications - As a visitation and parenting time modification attorney, Mr. Baker represents men and women in visitation and parenting time modification matters. In order to make a request for a post-divorce or family court modification involving visitation and parenting time, the party making the request must be able to demonstrate a significant and continuing change of circumstances that warrant a visitation and parenting time modification, which may include a lack of exercising parenting time by one parent, requests of minor children, or that one party is preventing meaningful parenting time for the other parent.

In family law and government policy, child support or child maintenance is the ongoing obligation for a periodic payment made directly or indirectly by a non-custodial parent to a custodial parent, caregiver or guardian, or the government, for the care and support of children of a relationship or marriage that has been terminated. In family law, child support is often arranged as part of a divorce, marital separation, dissolution, annulment, determination of parentage or dissolution of a civil union and may supplement alimony (spousal support) arrangements.

The right to child support and the responsibilities of parents to provide such support have been internationally recognized. The 1992 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a binding convention signed by every member nation of the United Nations and formally ratified by all but two, declares that the upbringing and development of children and a standard of living adequate for the children's development is a common responsibility of both parents and a fundamental human right for children, and asserts that the primary responsibility to provide such for the children rests with their parents. Other United Nations documents and decisions related to child support enforcement include the 1956 United Nations Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance, which was ratified by the vast majority of UN member nations.

A Restraining order is a form of legal injunction. The term is most commonly used in reference to domestic violence, stalking or sexual assault. Each state has some form of domestic violence restraining order law, and many states also have specific restraining order laws for stalking and sexual assault. These laws are explained on the WomensLaw.org website.

A restraining order is a legal order issued by a state court which requires one person to stop harming another person. It is also sometimes called a Protection Order, Order of Protection, Protection from Abuse Order, Protective Order or some other similar name.

Restraining order/protection order laws establish who can file for an order, what protection or relief a person can get from such an order, and how the order will be enforced. While there are differences from state to state, all protective order statutes permit the court to order the abuser to stay away from someone, their home, their workplace or their school ("stay away" provisions) and to stop contacting them. Victims generally also can ask the court to order that all contact, whether by telephone, notes, mail, fax, email or delivery of flowers or gifts, is prohibited ("no contact" provisions). Courts can also order the abuser to stop hurting or threatening someone("cease abuse" provisions).

Temporary orders usually act like a short term divorce decree. Temporary orders are legally binding guidelines for you and your spouse until the Court can make its ruling in the final decree. They can specify who gets to reside in the marital residence, who can write checks on specific bank accounts, who gets the kids, etc. Temporary orders can also prevent a spouse from contacting you, spending or transferring money, leaving with the child(ren), or almost any other action you can prove could be detrimental to you or your child(ren). In a divorce you are also entitled to have a temporary restraining order issued with out your spouse being present that is valid for 14 days.

If you and your spouse cannot agree on possession and access to your minor child(ren) during the divorce, you will need temporary orders. You have a right to be a parent to your child(ren). If your spouse is currently refusing to let you see or contact your child(ren) seek legal counsel. Do not attempt to force possession even if it is the fair thing to do. You can endanger yourself and your child(ren), as well as jeopardize custody in the future. If your spouse fails to abide by the temporary orders they are in contempt, and can be ordered to appear in Court. If they do not appear a bench warrant can be issued, and they will be taken into custody. At their contempt hearing they can be sentenced to jail or can have assets taken to satisfy the Court's orders.

Alimony, maintenance or spousal support is an obligation established by law in many countries that is based on the premise that both spouses have an absolute obligation to support each other during the marriage (or civil union) unless they are legally separated. In some instances, the obligation to support may continue after separation.

Historically, alimony arose as a result of the indissoluble nature of marriage. Because divorce was rare, husband and wife remained married after their physical separation and the husband's obligation to support his wife continued. With the growing view that men and women should be treated equally, the law recognized that both husbands and wives owed each other a similar duty of support. Accordingly, courts now may order either the husband or wife to pay alimony. In practice it is more often the husband that is required to pay.

Welcome to the "Grandparents' Rights" section of the Family Law Center. Child custody disputes aren't limited to parents' rights. In many cases, grandparents also want to make sure that their rights to visitation with (and sometimes custody of) grandchildren are protected.

This section contains information and tips on grandparents' rights in custody and visitation cases.

The grounds for involuntary termination of parental rights are specific circumstances under which the child cannot safely be returned home because of risk of harm by the parent or the inability of the parent to provide for the child's basic needs. Each State is responsible for establishing its own statutory grounds, and these vary by State.

The most common statutory grounds for determining parental unfitness include:

Severe or chronic abuse or neglect

buse or neglect of other children in the household

Abandonment

Long-term mental illness or deficiency of the parent(s)

Long-term alcohol- or drug-induced incapacity of the parent(s)

A domestic partnership is a legal or personal relationship between two individuals who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by a traditional marriage nor a civil union. However, in some jurisdictions, such as California, domestic partnership is equivalent to marriage, or to other legally recognized same-sex or different-sex unions. The terminology for such unions is still evolving, and the exact level of rights and responsibilities conferred by a domestic partnership varies widely from place to place.

Some legislatures have voluntarily established domestic partnership relations by statute instead of being ordered to do so by a court. Although some jurisdictions have instituted domestic partnerships as a way to recognize same-sex unions, domestic partnerships may involve either different-sex or same-sex couples.

In law, Paternity is the legal acknowledgment of the parental relationship between a man and a child usually based on several factors.

Under common law, a child born to the wife during a marriage is usually presumed to be the husband's child. This concept is the "presumption of lawful paternity", and assigns to the husband complete rights, duties and obligations as to the child. The presumption, however, can be sometimes be rebutted by evidence to the contrary, at least prior to a formal court ruling involving the putative paternity (often this is a decree of divorce, annulment, or legal separation). Jurisdictions differ widely on whether, when, and under what circumstances a judgment establishing paternity or a support obligation founded on the presumption can be set aside on the grounds that the husband was not in fact the father.

Child Protective Services can be called by people who are “reporting” a situation or certain conduct. There are also individuals who are “mandatory reporters,” such as principals in schools, teachers, doctors, or therapists. These are people who speak with a child and are mandated to report certain signs of abuse or maltreatment.

CPS matters result in an investigation. Investigations can be founded or unfounded. People may be indicated in a report and they may be charged with neglect. Often, people are the subject of CPS reports that are “founded” based on evidence. These reports, at times, do not rise to the level of neglect. Nevertheless, no one wants to be in the state’s central registry as being the subject of an indicated child protective service report. This is in the registry for 23 years. This will greatly affect that person’s ability to work in certain Federal and State agencies, and/or as a teacher or daycare provider. Moreover, many people find it personally offensive and an affront to their obvious abilities as a parent and the love for their child.

Collaborative Law (also called Collaborative Practice, Collaborative Divorce, and Collaborative Family Law) was originally a divorce procedure in which the two parties agreed that they would not go to court, or threaten to do so. It has expanded significantly since then.

This approach to conflict resolution was created in 1990 by a Minnesota family lawyer named Stu Webb, who saw that traditional litigation was not always helpful to parties and their families, and often was damaging. Since 1990, the collaborative law movement has spread rapidly to most of the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia. Per the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, more than 10,000 lawyers have been trained in collaborative law in the United States, with collaborative practitioners in at least 46 states. In some localities, collaborative law has become the predominant method for resolving divorces.

In a collaborative divorce, the parties strive to reach a fair settlement through a series of meetings, sometimes called joint sessions, between the two parties and their lawyers, and sometimes other neutral experts. The primary focus of the four-way meetings or joint sessions is to identify the priorities, goals, needs and interests of the parties, and help them progress towards and create a settlement that is consistent with their priorities, goals, needs, and interests. The parties make their own decisions based on their own standards. Some have critiqued this aspect of collaborative law (and mediation), believing that court processes are better suited towards protecting rights than voluntary dispute resolution processes. However, most attorneys involved in the divorce process agree that the parties can make better decisions about their children and their families than a judge.

Mediation, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) or "appropriate dispute resolution", aims to assist two (or more) disputants in reaching an agreement. Whether an agreement results or not, and the content of that agreement (if any) the parties themselves determine — rather than accepting something imposed by a third party. The disputes may involve (as parties) states, organizations, communities, individuals or other representatives with a vested interest in the outcome.

Mediators use appropriate techniques and/or skills to open and/or improve dialogue between disputants, aiming to help the parties reach an agreement (with concrete effects) on the disputed matter. Normally, all parties must view the mediator as impartial.

Dispostion of the family home frequently causes problems in a divorce. Custodial parents may want to hang onto the home for the sake of the children. Perhaps one or both spouses can't afford to purchase a similar replacement home. Much depends upon the amount of equity in the home and the ability of each spouse to keep it.

The following is a portion of a chapter from Divorce Strategy that contains information to get you started on the road of evaluating your divorce decision about your real estate.

For most couples the family home is the highest valued asset they will have to divide in their divorce. Its division is usually fraught with controversy for varying reasons. It may be difficult to value, is not readily converted to cash, costs a substantial amount of money to maintain and has implications of federal and state tax liability. As if all those things were not enough, your family's emotional attachment to your real estate, in particular a family or vacation home, can cause you to make an irrational or poor decision at the time of the divorce. Your family may be haunted by that decision for years after your divorce.

Community property is a marital property regime that originated in civil law jurisdictions, and is now also found in some common law jurisdictions. The portions of the United States that recognize community property, which are primarily the western States, acquired this body of law from the law of Mexico which was derived from Spanish law, derived ultimately from the Visigoths.

In a community property jurisdiction, most property acquired during the marriage (except for gifts or inheritances) is owned jointly by both spouses and is divided upon divorce, annulment or death. Joint ownership is automatically presumed by law in the absence of specific evidence that would point to a contrary conclusion for a particular piece of property. The community property system is usually justified by the idea that such joint ownership recognizes the theoretically equal contributions of both spouses to the creation and operation of the family unit.

Personal property is a type of property. In the common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. It is distinguished from real property, or real estate. In the civil law systems personal property is often called movable property or movables - any property that can be moved from one location to another. This term is in distinction with immovable property or immovables, such as land and buildings.

Personal property may be classified in a variety of ways. Tangible personal property refers to any type of property that can generally be moved (i.e., it is not attached to real property or land), touched or felt. These generally include items such as furniture, clothing, jewelry, art, writings, or household goods. In some cases, there can be formal title documents that show the ownership and transfer rights of that property after a person's death (for example, motor vehicles, boats, etc.) In many cases, however, tangible personal property will not be "titled" in an owner's name and is presumed to be whatever property he or she was in possession of at the time of his or her death.

Intangible personal property or "intangibles" refers to personal property that cannot be actually "moved" touched or felt, but instead represents something of value such as negotiable instruments, securities, goods, and intangible assets including chose in action.

Clients often place too much emphasis on how assets are divided. Of equal or greater importance is debt allocation. Loans for cars, homes, credit cards and other loans must also be divided fairly.

Our attorneys have significant skill in ferreting out pre-marital debts, debts that are hidden and debts attributable to waste, such as gambling. We strive to document parties’ debts so they can be properly apportioned to the responsible spouse.

Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are sometimes used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.

Following ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in most countries, terms such as "residence" and "contact" (known as "visitation" in the United States) have superseded the concepts of "custody" and "access". Instead of a parent having "custody" of or "access" to a child, a child is now said to "reside" or have "contact" with a parent. For a discussion of the new international nomenclature, see parental responsibility.

Residence and contact issues typically arise in proceedings involving divorce (dissolution of marriage), annulment and other legal proceedings where children may be involved. In most jurisdictions the issue of which parent the child will reside with is determined in accordance with the best interests of the child standard.