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Family Law InformationWhat is family law? Family law is the area of law that governs family relations. This includes divorce, child custody, child support, and adoption. What is divorce? Divorce is the judicial termination of marriage. Divorce may be mutual or initiated by one party, but it always requires a legitimate justification (“grounds for divorce”). What is child custody? Custody is an adult’s responsibility for a child. The two primary types of custody are legal custody and physical custody. Legal custody is the authority to make important decisions regarding the child’s welfare. These decisions may regard such things as religion, education, medical care, and behavior. Physical custody is the responsibility of housing the child and providing him or her with basic necessities. Sole custody is the possession of both legal and physical custody by one parent only. Joint custody is a sharing of custodial duties between both parents. Physical custody can be joint, meaning that both parents provide a residence for the child. Legal custody can also be joint, meaning important decisions require input from both parents. In cases where legal custody is shared but physical custody is not, the parent who has physical custody is generally considered ‘custodial.’ The other parent is then ‘noncustodial.’ What is child support? Child support is a parent’s legal obligation to provide for a child until majority or independence. When parents separate, both parents still hold this responsibility. If one parent has physical custody, that parent’s support is typically accounted for by day-to-day care; the noncustodial parent, meanwhile, is typically ordered to make regular contributions to take care of the child. These contributions typically come in the form of monetary payments to the custodial parent. What is alimony? Alimony is money paid regularly from one ex-spouse to another for support. Whether or not alimony is required and the details of payment depend upon the individual circumstances. Generally, in the period following short marriages (of a duration less than a fixed number of years, such as five or ten), alimony is frequently not demanded of either spouse or is only required for a very limited duration. Both parties are presumed to have retained whatever self-sufficiency they possessed prior to marriage, and thus are capable of reintroducing themselves into the workforce. Only special circumstances, such as one person’s disability or role as full-time childcare provider, may introduce alimony into the divorce proceedings. In marriages of longer duration, however, extended alimony may be awarded. How much is paid and for how long depends upon factors such as the relative earning potentials of the two parties and the division of assets at the time of divorce. What is the definition of adoption? Adoption is a legal process by which an individual assumes parental responsibility of a child who is not his or her offspring. The individual has custody, owes support, and takes on all the other rights and duties of a parent. Except in special cases, the biological parent’s legal relationship with the child effectively ends when the adoption takes place. Such is often the case even when a stepparent adopts a child – the noncustodial biological parent loses rights to the child (though the custodial parent retains them, of course). |