Family Law

The Divorce Process Divorce is not a single legal event. It is a process through which a marriage is formally brought to an end and the legal consequences of that ending are determined. Although divorce laws differ from state to state, the process commonly involves several stages: establishing jurisdiction, filing Read more

Legal Separation vs. Divorce When a marriage is no longer functioning, spouses do not always have to choose immediately between staying together and getting divorced. In some jurisdictions, the law provides another possibility: legal separation. Legal separation allows spouses to live apart while remaining legally married. Depending on state law, Read more

Fault-Based Divorce Divorce is often associated today with no-fault divorce, in which a spouse can generally seek dissolution of the marriage without proving that the other spouse did something legally wrong. But divorce law did not always work that way. For much of American legal history, a spouse seeking a Read more

No-Fault Divorce No-fault divorce is a legal system under which a spouse can obtain a divorce without proving that the other spouse committed marital misconduct. Instead of requiring a court to determine who caused the marriage to fail, no-fault divorce generally allows a marriage to be dissolved because the relationship Read more

Grounds for Divorce The grounds for divorce are the legally recognized reasons or circumstances that permit a court to dissolve a marriage. The concept sounds straightforward, but divorce law has undergone a major transformation. Historically, a spouse generally had to prove that the other spouse had committed a legally recognized Read more

What Is Divorce? Divorce is the legal process through which a valid marriage is formally ended. It does more than separate two people emotionally or physically. A divorce terminates a legal relationship and can determine important rights and obligations involving property, finances, debts, children, inheritance, and future legal status. In Read more

Prenuptial Agreements and Property Rights A prenuptial agreement can significantly shape the property rights of spouses during marriage, separation, divorce, and sometimes death. Although prenups are often described simply as contracts designed to protect wealth, their deeper legal function is to establish rules about who owns what, how property will Read more

Financial Disclosure in Prenuptial Agreements Financial disclosure is one of the most important elements in the formation and enforcement of a prenuptial agreement. A prenuptial agreement allows future spouses to establish contractual rules concerning property, debts, income, inheritance, and other financial matters. But for an agreement to be meaningful, each Read more

Enforceability of Prenuptial Agreements A prenuptial agreement is only as useful as its ability to be enforced. Couples may sign an agreement before marriage believing that its terms will automatically control their property, financial obligations, inheritance rights, or spousal support if the marriage later ends. But signing a document does Read more