A divorce attorney is an attorney that specializes in family law, and has experience in issues of divorce, child custody and visitation, child support, and spousal support. A divorce attorney specializes in civil law. This field can be saturated with emotions and life-changing decisions. Therefore, a divorce attorney must delicately yet justly handle a wide variety of family law issues from divorce, marriage annulment, and legal separation to child custody, child support and visitation rights. They are also called divorce attorneys or family practice lawyers.
Terms to Know
Custody : Having rights to your child. Custody can be either legal, which means that you have the right to make important decisions about your child’s welfare, or physical, which means that the child lives with and is raised by you.
Prenuptial Agreement : An agreement made between a man and a woman before marrying in which they give up future rights to each other’s property in the event of a divorce or death.
Stipulation: An agreement entered into by the divorcing spouses that settles the issues between them and is often entered into the court’s final order or judgment and decree.
Duties of a Divorce Lawyer
The duties of a divorce lawyer vary depending on the specifics of the case. In general, however, an attorney is responsible for helping the client throughout the process, from the first meeting, to settling matters after the divorce is finalized. A divorce attorney provides:
- Advice on how to deal with marital property, bank accounts, credit cards, and other marital assets
- Assurance of the progress made concerning disputes, court proceedings, and the stages of the divorce proceeding
- Preparation and court filing of all paperwork involved, such as the summons and complaint, motions, and custody papers, as well as preparation of the final divorce and custody orders
- An intermediary to deal with conflicts during the divorce process, such as custody disputes, and arguments over property
- Representation at all court hearings
Issues Involved in a Divorce
At its most basic, a divorce is a legal process by which two parties terminate their legal and financial relationship. But each divorce is unique and most involve disputes over things like child custody or division of property. Here are the main issues a divorce attorney deals with:
1.Division of Property:
All property acquired by either spouse after the marriage date is considered “marital property” and is subject to equitable division.
2.Alimony:
Alimony, or spousal support, is monthly payment made by one spouse to another in accordance to either a settlement agreement or court order. Alimony is meant to correct for any unfair economic effects of a divorce.
3.Child Support:
Child support is a monthly payment made by the noncustodial parent to the custodial parent to be spent on the child’s needs.
4.Child Custody:
When a family splits up, the parents and the court must decide what is best for the minor children, including where they will live and how decisions are made. This is often the most difficult part of the divorce proceedings.
Job Description & Skills Required for divorce attorney
When terminating a marriage, many legal aspects must be addressed. A divorce lawyer is responsible for the division of assets and debt among spouses. If there are children involved, a divorce lawyer helps set the terms for child custody and child support. Thorough research is required in order to gather supporting evidence in each case. Detailed paperwork must be compiled and then submitted to the court documenting the evidence. For legal separations, a divorce lawyer carries out the separation through court orders.
A divorce lawyer must excel in a few unique skills. They have to be an attentive listener because the decisions made in or out of court will greatly affect their client’s lives. Although it may be difficult, it is vital a divorce lawyer remains non-judgmental to assist them in promoting their own client’s best interests. Their interpersonal skills must be strong because they are dealing with a variety of relationships in their profession. Advocacy, mediation and alternative dispute resolution skills should be acquired and mastered in law school as well as through continual work experience in the field.
Salary and Job Outlook of divorce attorney
A divorce lawyer’s yearly salary can range, on average, from $48,000-$80,000. As a divorce lawyer builds their reputation in the field, the hourly rate they charges and therefore, salary is likely to increase.
Because the divorce rate is so high in the United States, a large percentage of clients frequently seek out divorce lawyers’ services. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the next 8 years through 2020, it is estimated employment for lawyers will grow ten percent. This is in step with the national average for all occupations. However, expect competition to remain steady as more law students are graduating than there are job positions available. With high competition, lawyers must be willing to relocate and have a variety of work experiences on their resumes. Relocation to a different state means passing another state’s bar exam.
Summary
Divorce attorney specialized in family law, children custody, visitation, property materiel such as credit card, bank accounts and spousal support. Divorce attorney have complete knowledge about paper work, and face all conflicts occur in court room. Divorce attorney must represent in all the hearings.
The following are the most common types of divorce:
- Fault and no-fault divorce.
- Uncontested divorce.
- Arbitration.
- Mediation.
- Collaborative divorce.
- Default divorce.
- Summary divorce.
- Contested divorce.
Contested divorce
Contested divorces mean that one of several issues are required to be heard by a judge at trial level this is more expensive, and the parties will have to pay for a lawyer’s time and preparation. In such a divorce the spouses are not able to agree on issues for instance child custody and division of marital assets. In such situations, the litigation process takes longer to conclude.
Uncontested divorces
While every divorce must cite one of the five reasons for irretrievable breakdown above, that doesn’t mean every divorce has to be contested in court. When a respondent receives the divorce petition, they always have the option of simply accepting it, and signing the petition to indicate their agreement to the divorce process. Uncontested divorces make up the vast majority of divorces in England and Wales, largely because they are less stressful and far less expensive than contested divorces. Even so, both parties in an uncontested divorce are advised to agree to a divorce financial settlement.
Fault divorce
Fault-based divorces can be contested; evaluation of offenses may involve allegations of collusion of the parties (working together to get the divorce), or condonation (approving the offense), connivance (tricking someone into committing an offense), or provocation by the other party. Contested fault divorces can be expensive, and not usually practical as eventually most divorces are granted. Comparative rectitude is a doctrine used to determine which spouse is more at fault when both spouses are guilty of breaches.
No-fault divorce
The government plans to reform the divorce process to remove the concept of fault and blame in attempt to reduce the conflict that the current divorce laws can sometimes lead to. However, this strictly ‘no-fault’ divorce is not yet available.
This means that you must still prove ‘irretrievable breakdown’ as the grounds for your divorce in England and Wales, for one of the following reasons:
• Adultery : Where you must offer proof that your spouse has had sexual ■■■■■■■■■■■ with a member of the opposite sex
• Unreasonable behavior: Where your spouse’s behavior is so bad that no reasonable person could put up with it
• Desertion: Where your spouse has been absent for more than two years in the last two and a half years without good reason or your consent
• When you have lived separate lives for more than two years: This enables you divorce if both parties agree
• When you have lived separate lives for more than five years: This enables you to divorce even if only one party.
Summary divorce
A summary (or simple) divorce, available in some jurisdictions, is used when spouses meet certain eligibility requirements or can agree on key issues beforehand.
Key factors:
- Short duration of marriage (less than five years)
- Absence of children (or, in some jurisdictions, prior allocation of child custody and of child-support direction and amount)
- Absence or minimal value of real property at issue and any associated encumbrances such as mortgages
- Absence of agreed-as-marital property above a given value threshold (around $35,000 not including vehicles)
- Absence, with respect to each spouse, of claims to personal property above a given value threshold, typically the same as that for total marital property, with such claims including claims to exclusive previous ownership of property described by the other spouse as marital
Collaborative divorce
Collaborative divorce is a method for divorcing couples to come to an agreement on divorce issues. In a collaborative divorce, the parties negotiate an agreed resolution with the assistance of attorneys who are trained in the collaborative divorce process and in mediation and often with the assistance of a neutral financial specialist or divorce coaches. The parties are empowered to make their own decisions based on their own needs and interests, but with complete information and full professional support. Expense, they say, has to be looked at under the headings of financial and emotional. Also, the experience of working collaboratively tends to improve communication between the parties, particularly when collaborative coaches are involved, and the possibility of going back to court post-separation or divorce is minimized. In the course of the collaboration, should the parties not reach any agreements, any documents or information exchanged during the collaborative process cannot be used in court except by agreement between the parties.
Electronic divorce
Portugal, for example, allows two persons to file an electronic request for no-fault collaborative divorce in a non judiciary administrative entity. In specific cases, with no children, real property, alimony, or common address, can be completed within one hour.
Mediated divorce
Divorce mediation is an alternative to traditional divorce litigation. In a divorce mediation session, a mediator facilitates the discussion between the two parties by assisting with communication and providing information and suggestions to help resolve differences. At the end of the mediation process, the separating parties have typically developed a tailored divorce agreement that can be submitted to the court. Mediation sessions can include either party’s attorneys, a neutral attorney, or an attorney-mediator who can inform both parties of their legal rights, but does not provide advice to either, or can be conducted with the assistance of a facilitative or transformative mediator without attorneys present at all. Divorce mediation can be significantly less costly, both financially and emotionally, than litigation.
Summary
There are different type of divorce. Contested divorce is more expense because both parties pay lawyer for preparation of case. Contested divorce have some points both parties are agree on that points. In Fault divorce both parties are work together for getting divorce. No-fault divorce occur when you prove adultery , unreasonable behavior, desertion, lead separate lives for three to five years. Summary divorce have some key factor which are short duration of marriage, absence of children, absence of property issues and absence of agreed-as- material property. In a collaborative divorce, the parties negotiate an agreed resolution with the assistance of attorneys who are trained in collaborative divorce. Electronic divorce procedure complete within one hour in case of no children, real property and common address. In mediation divorce mediator facilitates the discussion between the two parties by assisting with communication and providing information and suggestions to help resolve differences. At the end of the mediation process, the separating parties have typically developed a tailored divorce agreement.
Effects on relationship among parents and children
Some of the effects associated with divorce include academic, behavioral, and psychological problems. Although this may not always be true, studies suggest that children from divorced families are more likely to exhibit such behavioral issues than those from non-divorced families.
Divorce and relationships
Family and Child Studies suggests that divorce of couples experiencing high conflict can have a positive effect on families by reducing conflict in the home. There are, however, many instances when the parent–child relationship may suffer due to divorce. Financial support is many times lost when an adult goes through a divorce. The adult may be obligated to obtain additional work to maintain financial stability. Some couples choose divorce even when one spouse’s desire to remain married is greater than the other spouse’s desire to obtain a divorce. In economics, this is known as the Zelder Paradox, and is more common with marriages that have produced children, and less common with childless couples. In divorced families in which one parent moved, the students received less financial support from their parents compared with divorced families in which neither parent moved. These findings also imply other negative outcomes for these students, such as more distress related to the divorce and did not feel a sense of emotional support from their parents.
Psychological Effects on children
Divorce is associated with diminished psychological well-being in children and adult offspring of divorced parents, including greater unhappiness, less satisfaction with life, weaker sense of personal control, anxiety, depression, and greater use of mental health services.
Children of divorced parents are also more likely to experience conflict in their own marriages, and are more likely to experience divorce themselves. They are also more likely to be involved in short-term cohabiting relationships, which often dissolve before marriage. There are many studies that show proof of an intergenerational transmission of divorce, but this does not mean that having divorced parents will absolutely lead a child to divorce. There are two key factors that make this transmission of divorce more likely. First, inherited biological tendencies or genetic conditions may predispose a child to divorce as well as the “model of marriage” presented by the child’s parents. Parents simply do not realize the damage they do to their children by the battles they wage over them.
Research shows that children can be affected 2,4 years before the separation or divorce even occurs. This can be due to parental conflict and anticipation of a divorce, and decreased parental contact. Many couples believe that by separating, or becoming legally divorced that they are helping their children, and in situations of extreme parental conflict of abuse it most likely will be beneficial.
Girls and boys deal with divorce differently. For instance, girls who initially show signs of adapting well, later suffer from anxiety in romantic relationships with men. Studies also showed that girls who were separated from their fathers at a younger age tended to be angrier toward the situation as they aged. Anger and sadness were also observed at common feeling in adolescents who had experienced parental divorce.
Divorce effect children Academic and socioeconomic career
Frequently, children who have experienced a divorce have lower academic achievement than children from non-divorced families. In a review of family and school factors related to adolescents academic performance, it noted that a child from a divorced family is two times more likely to drop out of high school than a child from a non-divorced family. These children from divorced families may also be less likely to attend college, resulting in the discontinuation of their academic career. Many times academic problems are associated with those children from single-parent families. Studies have shown that this issue may be directly related to the economical influence of divorce. A divorce may result in the parent and children moving to an area with a higher poverty rate and a poor education system all due to the financial struggles of a single parent.
Children of divorced parents also achieve lower levels of socioeconomic status, income, and wealth accumulation than children of continuously married parents. These outcomes are associated with lower educational achievement. Young men or women between the ages of 7 and 16 who had experienced the divorce of their parents were more likely than youths who had not experienced the divorce of their parents to leave home because of friction, to cohabit before marriage, and to parent a child before marriage.
Divorce often leads to worsened academic achievement in children ages 7–12, the most heightened negative effect being reading test scores. These negative effects tend to persist, and even escalate after the divorce or separation occurs. Children of divorced or separated parents exhibit increased behavioral problems and the marital conflict that accompanies parents’ divorce places the child’s social competence at risk.
Summary
Some of the effects associated with divorce include academic, behavioral, and psychological problems. When parents face divorce children must effected by their conflicts children face financial problems rather then other families their outcome always be negative for them. Parents divorce effect children psychologically they are depressed, less satisfied with life. Mostly girls are more affected. Parents divorce effect children academic career and also their socioeconomic career. Divorce parents children have less achievement in life compare of married parents.
Social attitude towards divorce
Attitudes toward divorce vary substantially across the world. Divorce is considered socially unacceptable by the majority of the population in certain Sub-Saharan African countries such as Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya, South Asian countries like India and Pakistan and South-East Asian countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. The majority of the population considers divorce to be acceptable in Eastern Europe, East Asia, Latin America and the United States. In developed regions such as Western Europe and Japan, more than 80% of the population considers divorce to be socially acceptable. Divorce is also widely accepted in certain Muslim majority countries such as Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, at least when men initiate it.
Divorce law in India
On a national level, the Special Marriage Act, passed in 1954, is an inter-religious marriage law permitting Indian nationals to marry and divorce irrespective of their religion or faith. The Hindu Marriage Act, in 1955 which legally permitted divorce to Hindus and other communities who chose to marry under these acts. The Indian Divorce Act 1869 is the law relating to the divorce of person professing the Christian religion. Divorce can be sought by a husband or wife on grounds including adultery, cruelty, desertion for two years, religious conversion, mental abnormality, venereal disease, and leprosy. Divorce is also available based on mutual consent of both the spouses, which can be filed after at least one year of separated living. Mutual consent divorce can not be appealed, and the law mandates a minimum period of six months (from the time divorce is applied for) for divorce to be granted. Contested divorce is when one of the spouse is not willing to divorce the other spouse, under such condition the divorce is granted only on certain grounds according to the Hindu marriage act of 1955. While a Muslim husband can unilaterally bring an end to the marriage by pronouncing talaq , Muslim women must go to court, claiming any of the grounds provided under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act.
Various communities are governed by specific marital legislation, distinct to Hindu Marriage Act, and consequently have their own divorce laws:
- The Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, 1936
- The Dissolution of Muslim Marriage act, 1939
- The Foreign Marriage Act, 1969
- The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986
Divorce according to Islamic law
Divorce in Islam can take a variety of forms, some initiated by the husband and some initiated by the wife. The main traditional legal categories are talaq (repudiation), khulʿ (mutual divorce), judicial divorce and oaths. The theory and practice of divorce in the Islamic world have varied according to time and place. Historically, the rules of divorce were governed by sharia, as interpreted by traditional Islamic jurisprudence, and they differed depending on the legal school. Historical practice sometimes diverged from legal theory. In modern times, as personal status (family) laws were codified, they generally remained “within the orbit of Islamic law”, but control over the norms of divorce shifted from traditional jurists to the state.
Summary
Social Attitudes toward divorce vary substantially across the world. Divorce is considered socially unacceptable by the majority of the population. Divorce is acceptable only in develop countries.
Frequently ask question
Is it worth getting a divorce lawyer?
There are certain situations when hiring a divorce lawyer makes sense, and you should probably do it. You should probably hire an attorney if: There’s a problem with abuse. … Your divorce involves children or complicated financial issues.
When should I hire a divorce attorney?
If your marriage has any complicated issues to settle, an attorney can be an invaluable resource. For example, if there is child custody and support issues, substantial income, debts, assets or future assets (an inheritance, etc.) then you should hire an attorney to protect your interests in a divorce.
How can I get a divorce lawyer with no money?
So here are simple ways to get a divorce lawyer with no money.
Divorce Fee Waiver. …
Obtain Free Divorce Forms. …
Provide Financial Proof. …
File For Fee Waiver. …
Government Help For Divorce. …
Go For Mediation. …
Pro Bono Divorce Lawyers. …
Hourly Rate.
Do men regret divorce?
When it comes to having second thoughts, fewer women than men express regret over being divorced: 73% of women report having no regret over being divorced while 61% of men say the same.
conclusion
Divorce attorney is attorney who is specialized in family law and civil law he is our legal advisor. He give us advice how to deal with child custody and visitation, child support, spousal support, material property, bank account, credit card and other material asserts. He prepare paper work about final divorce and custody order. He prepare himself for any conflict during court hearing. They have to be an attentive listener because the decisions made in or out of court will greatly affect their client’s lives.