Articles on Divorce
Can a Marital Dissolution Agreement be Revised or Renegotiated?
I have a marital dissolution agreement (MDA) that states each spouse waives the right of the other’s retirement account settled in a divorce 10 yrs. ago. One spouse is now threatening the other to go back and get half of the retirement account. Can a MDA be renegotiated? Where a complaint can be filed against an ad litemguardian if there are proofs that he is biassed? I am getting a Dissolution of my marriage, but I have had a baby by another man while separated from my ex-husband. Do I have to let the court know about my baby with another man? As a child, my son had cancer and was given money by city police officers, (called a “10-13″) totaling 13,000 in case our medical coverage became exhausted. My ex husband and I have been divorced about 4 years now and he says he doesn’t have the money because he spent it on all the furniture that we owned at that time. When he left us, he took the money from our then bank account. What can I do to get back what is owed to my son? I am an Active Duty Soldier (US Army) and was deployed in Baghdad, Iraq all of 2007. When I was in Iraq my wife committed adultery with another soldier and she became pregnant. Is there anything I can do to protect me during all of this, I just feel helpless and exposed while my wife who committed adultery on me with another soldier I am the one who has to send her my money every month, and she said she wouldn’t help pay for the divorce fee’s. I have been legally divorced since 2002 however never lived like divorced people. This year we split up and I moved out. Shortly after I became unemployed and filed for unemployment which I am currently collecting. He lost his job shortly after that as well. I’m extremely broke and bearly have food for my daughter. Please help with any advise. I live in Texas and have a question about claiming both my kids on my 2007 federal income tax return. We officially became divorced in Feb 2008, however in 2007 I received no child support whatsoever from my ex for the months of June through the end of the year. Should I just file married filing separately for 2007 and take the deduction for both kids, and what if he has already filed and took the deduction for one the kids? I live in Texas and I am going through a divorce. We have been separated since June of 2007. I received my 401K 1099-R form in the mail this January ‘08 and learned that 17K was distributed from my 401K account without my knowledge. What are the legal ramifications for her falsifying my signature and calling in and lying to obtain the disbursement from the 401K investment firm? I am legally seperated from my wife, and she wont sign the divorce papers. I have children, and i have primary custody of them. I also have a girlfriend, is it ok for my girlfriend to be around my children? Ive kind of been scared because i know my ex-wife might try to find some way to use it against me. please help. What is the legal penalty for not disclosing a previous divorce on a new marriage license? I was in a quick marriage when I was 18 and we quickly divorced never even living together as a couple. keep hearing that it’s against the law to not put this on the marriage license but what is the actual penalty? Are we talking a small fine or jail time? Besides how would they ever find out, who would care enough to go searching for this? I owned a home before my marriage. Now I am getting divorced and my husband has been added to the deed. Can he only get a portion of the house since the time we were married (3 years)? Is he entitled to more? We moved from Illinois about 5 years ago, have been married almost 17 years and my husband is having an affair with someone from Illinois. Last night he talked with the children (12, 14) about getting a divorce (I was attending an CoDepency Meeting), and my son (14) wants to go to Illinois with him. While I wouldn’t mind it , I don’t believe it’s a good idea for my son. 3 weeks ago my husband pushed me down in the driveway, I received 8 staples in my head, all because I was to ‘persistent’ in asking about the affair. I’m wondering what I need to do so my son isn’t shattered when they go to Illinois and live with her, being his age can I still maintain custody of him. I just wanted to know if I can put life insurance on my ex-wife without her consent? I live in California and I am currently dating a man who is going through divorce. His ex has promised to do whatever it takes to not allow their daughter to be around me during his time with her. The ex just does not like me and does not want me around her daughter. Does she have the right to keep their daughter away from him or me legally in the state of California just because she doesn’t like me? Or does he have the right to bring her around whoever he wants during his time with her? I have a question regarding the language in my husband’s separation agreement with his ex-wife pertaining to his 401K. Is “appropriate court order” his divorce decree? Or does he need to file something additional regarding this part of his 401K? There is nothing in the divorce decree that further outlines specifics regarding his 401K. My ex wife and I were divorced in Bergen County, PA. She has now moved with my son to Northern New Jersey. She has file a complaint of domestication and she says it is for the sole purpose of legally stating that she resides in NJ now. In this complaint it now states a lot of different things. Such as paying support until the child is 23. How can I stop all these new things from happening? Can I drop my divorce attorney and represent myself? I’m not happy with the service I am receiving from her and I feel that she is charging for extra work that does not have to be done. I live in Austin, TX. If I divorce my husband of 20+ years I would want to relocate to Tyler, TX where I have family. My husband says I can get a divorce, but I cannot leave the Austin area since we have a 14 year old son. Is there a law that prevents divorced moms from taking their son to another town, leaving their ex-husband in the town that they have all lived in the last 20 years. I live in New York State and My husband knows I plan to divorce him and I have been doing the books for his business for the past 8 years. I gave the information to the accountant to do the income tax and received a call from him that my husband had, had an income of 93 thousand for the 2006 and would have to pay 30 thousand in tax returns. After that my husband filed an extension. I received a copy the returns today (because it is my right since we are still married) and he came up with a bunch of false deductions that lowered his income to 34 thousand this year. Can I sign them under protest because I don’t believe they are correct? And will that help me in court when I divorce? Or should I not sign them at all because I feel they are incorrect? My son and daughter-in-law wanted to purchase a mobile home about 10 years ago. Their credit was bad, so my husband and myself took out the loan to buy it. They are now divorced. The loan payment amount is $ 333.24 monthly. I make a payment each month for $335.00. She sends me a check for $333.00. I am losing money on this. What are my options? In my divorce papers my husband & I stated: No overnight guest of the opposiet sex while minor chidren are present. Does this mean until my children are of age or until I re-marry? Or does this mean until our divorce is final? My wife and I have been separated for 15 months. During this time we have had separate accounts. 8 months ago I began seeing another woman with my wife’s full knowledge. Now that we are finalizing our divorce she claims that any money spent on my new relationship is community property and she is entitled to half of it. True? I filed for divorce due to verbal abuse towards my daughter and myself and physical abuse by his drunkenness. Now I find out he did not report “cash” income he received from a lawn service he has been doing for a few years. What is my chances of holding him responsible to pay the IRS without me being involved as I had no idea he did this? I married my husband in 1993 six years later I left him, when I found out he was still married to his second wife. Are we still legally married even though he never divorced his second wife?? Do I have rights to regain my paternity and custody rights if my parental rights were wrongly terminated? My ex-wife said she was very sorry but she wanted me out of the picture. Now she is happy to live with her husband, son and his siblings/two children were born during their marriage/, the boy has a bond with her husband and… in this way I am not wanted because it is not in his interest to have relationships with me. I only want to be a part…no-I want to be a very important part of my son’s life. I was told I do not have fair chance for success, the odds are not in my favor and if I file a motion I will lose. Is it true? When my ex-wife and I separated/divorced we lived in AZ. After it was final I moved to North Carolina. Our child support agreement is through the state of AZ. She has recently moved to Phily. What happens to the court order? Do I need to file and start the process over in Phily, or does it automatically carry over from AZ to Phily? My (ex) wife and I have lived apart as a divorced couple for more than 20 years although we never finished legal proceedings. We have filed our taxes this way, have titled ourselves this way. I want to re-marry someone else. Is this first marriage considered “abandoned”, or do I still need to go through a divorce? My ex-wife and I had an agreement in our decree ( not a court order) to “half college expenses” for our daughter. At the time, we intended our daughter would attend an in-state public college as we did. However, my ex-wife now expects me to pay half of out-of-state tuition (which is twice the cost), because my daughter wants to be on the swim team but was not offered a scholarship. Would the court require me to pay half of out-of-state expenses, or is the agreement too vague to enforce? I have been married for 5 years in Africa (Nigeria). Now the laws are different over there. I live in Danville, Virginia and I am a citizen of the United States of America. My husband is not a citizen and lives in Germany. I have a boyfriend that i live with and we plan on getting married soon. My problem is since I got married in Africa, do I have to get a divorce? Or if i go ahead and marry my boyfriend, will that be bigamy? I am married and have two children with my husband. We are now separated because of an affair my husband had with a girl that is now saying he is the father of her son. What can I do as his wife to demand a DNA test? Do i have that right? My fiancee is going through a divorce, it should be final in April. I got her pregnant and she is due in May. Is it true that because they were married when I got her pregnant that her soon to be ex-husband will be the legal father of the child? Does he have any rights to the child? Recently, my daughter has been told the truth about her “real” dad. I told the bio-dad of this, and he is THRILLED. He has been seeing her, and wants to establish paternity and get visitation, and pay child support. All the stuff a “dad” does. No-one wanted to take away anything away from my ex husband since he’s been a decent father to her all these years. He doesn’t want to work with us at all and change the visitation schedule so we can all have some time with her. I don’t blame him really, but no-one is trying to hurt him. My daughter wants to see her biological dad and her half brother and sister on his side. When my ex and I divorced, child visitation and support was detailed out in the paperwork. He says that if we want to change that we have to go to court. We are wondering if the bio-dad stands any chance to re-gain legal rights to his child since it’s been 12 years since she was born, and he has had no formal contact with her during that time. My wife’s mother and father purchased a property that has since then turned into a very successful lodge. About ten years ago they divorced, but he did not sell his half to her-nor was she awarded it in court. He later died. Now My wife’s mother and current husband are trying to sell the place. We think that my wife’s father’s half ownership of property would go to his daughter (my wife) when he died, and therefore she would be half owner of the property. Is this the case? A few years ago, I asked my wife to move out of the condo that we purchased together, and she asked for some equity out of the property. We have since divorced. After filing the quit claim deed with the county, it was returned to me indicating that more detailed information is required to identify the property for recording purposes. Is the quit claim deed therefore invalid, or does the fact that she signed it at least show that the intent of the exchange of money and property between us still intact? Can I file an amendment to the original quit claim deed with the additional identifying information for the property requested by the county without her signature? How do I gain custody of both of my children even though their father and I are not divorced yet? My husband abandoned me in February 2006. He inherited a huge amount of money from his father’s passing in January 2006 of which I know I am not entitled to nor have I ever asked him for any of that money. Is there or do you know of an attorney that does pro bono work? My soon to be ex-husband has financially ruined me while he is living a lavish lifestyle and I need to be legally represented. I Lost my Prenuptial Agreement, What are my Options? My Son is in Iraq. His wife has left the state with his son, and has no intention of returning. Son wants divorce, and custody of child. I have his POA. Need help in how to proceed. My mother in law has not seen her husband in about 20 years and wants to know if he has divorced her in that time…She lived in MA. and now lives in FL. How would she find out that info? I was divorced in Oct/99 my ex is now going back to court to recover property that she feels was not divided properly. The wording in the agreement states “remainder of furnishing to be divided equally” but does not specify any particular items. She has named items she wants and the Judge appears to be going along with this. Is there a statue of limitations on any of this? It has been seven years since our divorce. She has not claimed these items until now. I live in New York State. If a spouse (husband) conceals substantial financial gain acquired during a 26-year marriage, and withholds disclosure of this overseas bank account in a divorce settlement, and then the other spouse (wife) finds out about the concealed money–after the divorce is finalized; can the wife reopen or sue the husband. And is there a time limit in the state of Mississippi. My friend’s wife passed away recently. She had filed for divorce and paid an attorney to handle the divorce. She never finished giving the attorney all of the information required before she passed. My friend and his mother-in-law have both asked for the fees to be returned, but neither has received any answer or information from the attorney. When I was married with my ex-husband we bought a house together, then later 7 years later we divorced and I was granted the house. It says in the decree that he was to get $11,500 plus 9% annum interest until I sold the house or I lost custody of the kids or they turned 18. Soon after the divorce I lost the house in a foreclosure with the bank, the house was taken from me and taken to the courthouse to sell. I was able to buy the house in full with my parent’s money at the auction’s asking price. Now I am selling the house and the house in under my name for the past 9 years and wants his part of the money that was stated in the decree. Does he have a case with this? My wife has recently asked me for a divorce. We will be divorcing in the state of North Carolina. The state has a one year separation obligation that must be fulfilled before filling for the divorce. I am a member of the USAF currently stationed in Wichita, KS. She is keeping our son with her in NC. Can she legally relocate with him like this? I reside in Arizona my wife resides in Oklahoma with our two kids. I want to file for divorce, is this possible with us living in different states and how will the custody/visitation be decided? After informing my wife of my desire for a divorce she has claimed that I will have to pay for her medical bills the rest of her life. She is not medically disabled. She could work but declines to. My daughter was married in Aug of 2005 and in Sept of 2005 she discovered that her new husband had been sending text messages while she was asleep to her younger sister. These messages were sexual in nature. We confronted him and he promised he would never do anything like this again. At that time we told him if he does he would have to pay us back the $45,000 we put out for their wedding. My daughter asked him to leave the marital domicile upon this discovery and also after he said he changed his mind and did not want children. Can we (either my daughter or her parents) sue him for “breach of promise” or something like that in a civil action for damages and the cost of the wedding? My soon to be ex husband and his father own the house in which me and the children occupy. Well, they want to sell house. Do I have any rights in this matter? I don’t want to move. I don’t think it is in best interest of children to move. The house was bought during the marriage. My husband and I are divorcing. He is taking everything that I have done over the past 10 years and twisting it around and basically lying. But because he made these types of accusations, it worries me that if mediation does not work and we end up in court, it may be hard for me to get shared custody of my daughter. Can he just flat out lie like that? We both have lawyers and mine is more laid back while his is not. I just want to get through this divorce as quickly as possible and try to get along but he doesn’t seem to want to do that – he wants a war. What should I do? I am getting divorced from my wife (disillusionment). The car that she drives is in my name. She would like me to keep the car in my name and she will make the payments to the bank. In the disillusionment agreement, it states that I am not liable if she should get in an accident, default on the payments, etc. Will this hold up in a court of law? My ex husband and I divorced in Michigan and the court ordered him to pay support on 2 of our daughters. We had it arranged so that he would pay me directly. He has now moved to Boston and I live in Washington state. I am tired of him calling the shots and would like to put it back in the hands of the state. My question is, which state? My Soon to be Ex is Trying Damage my Reputation, What Can I Do?He is bent upon damaging my reputation and I will remain silent until a court date. He has not responded to the divorce papers, nor the following notice of default. I’m in divorce process and was wandering if my wife would be entitled for alimony payments. We have been married in Russia about 20 years ago and live in US for 10 years . I agree to live her our house with an equity of about 100 K, 2/3 of our non pension savings (I only get about 35 K, she gets about 70K), and also agree to compensate her to equalize our pension funds. Will I need in addition of leaving her so much assets in her benefit still pay alimony if she decides to go to court? Also, would be divorce process any different for people who married in foreign country? I do not know what my rights are I’m married 10 yrs 3 kids in a very abusive relationship. I want to get out of My Husband and I bought a house in Phoenix, Arizona. My credit was bad at the time of purchase so his name was solely on the Mortgage as well as the Deed. Before we divorced I paid the Mortgage and all bills by myself for two years and shared the Mortgage and all bills for an additional four years out of a total of eight years of ownership. I have been divorced for about 6 years and at the time of the divorce, I trusted my ex to support his six children without the request for child support. He has been terrible to deal with and I can’t get him to pay enough support to support my children. I should have listened to the lawyer at the time and asked for alimony and support. I am an active duty military member on tour in Iraq, I have two daughters with my soon to be ex-spouse, paperwork was not filed due to monetary issues prior to my deployment. My sister has a full parental power of attorney regarding my daughters…I am now concerned because she has been speaking of going to my sister’s house and getting my daughters. If I use a certain law firm to do a closing on my home, which is in my name only, and afterward I get a divorce, can my husband use this same firm to represent him in the divorce or is it a conflict of interest? The case has since been handed off to another attorney that works in the same firm but I still can’t seem to get this finalized. I stand to recieve a large sum of money that could be and could have been drawing interest since 1999. My ex-husband has a court order that he is not to drink alcohol 8 hours prior to or any time during his visitation with our 5 year old daughter. He is a diagnosed alcoholic. Proven in court – and that is the reason the judge imposed this order on him. I have confronted him – he admits to it and then tells me he’ll stop. My fiance was married for almost 8 years. His, at the time, wife had a child from another man. While they were married, they began to explore the process of adopting said son. They decided it wasn’t necessary for the price. I signed a prenuptial agreement before I got married 14 years ago. Now we have to children, my husband is cheating, is it possible to get the prenuptial overturned. My husband retired from a CA police department. Shortly afterwards he and his wife of 30 years divorced. She passed away two years later due to alcoholism and left her half of his pension to their son who is 45 years old. The son gave his father a certified letter requesting the return of his inherited half of the pension back to his father. The retirement board refused to acknowledge the letter and return the pension. Once my “wife” found out that I was having another baby and was engaged to be married she tried to go after me for child support, which I had been paying her directly for the last 10 years, but she also filed for alimony. I just made a physical appearance at our last court hearing this week and when I showed up, low and behold my soon to be ex-wife looks to be about 6 months pregnant, and this was confirmed by her attorney. In the divorce decree, she had six months in which to move off of the property they owned together so that it could be sold. She has not moved nor has she made any attempt to move. However, since he purchased the home in his name only, and his name is the only name of the deed, would I be entitled to my part of the equitable increase in value if we were to divorce? My husband is taking his ex back to court for contempt. She was supposed to have drug and psycological counseling, parenting counseling and have their daughter in continued therapy. Also she was to assure the court that she would send their daughter to school on a regular basis. The oldest son I will call him Greg, just turned 18. Ot his 18th birthday his biological mother threw a party at her home for him. The adults were all drinking liquor and smoking pot. Greg admitted that he was drinking with his biological mom and that she gave drinks to the 14 year old son as well. We have been told by childrens services that it is not illegal for a parent to give alcohol to their child. He (Greg) said that he would be willing to tell all to a judge if we end up in court over this. I do not want the courts to decide custody, but I am not ready to come to an agreement with my spouse. My final judgment, in the state of Florida, states that I have sole decision making authority for the health, education and welfare of my son; but that I should also make good faith efforts to include his father in the decision making process. I called my son’s father to discuss after care and the benefits of having our son stay with the facility he has been at since he was 1 1/2 yrs old. But he refused to discuss the best interests of our son and wanted his “karate school” to pick him up everyday. Am I allowed to make these decisions since it does pertain to our son’s best interests, eliminates additional stress and confusion (also for his new kindergarten school), and will help with his continued education? We went to court for the Equitable Distrubution Hearing, and now some 6 months later we have nothing on paper from the judge. I have been representing myself “pro-se” in this action and can’t seem to get anywhere with the court to put the descision to paper. Per my divorce decree, my ex was to maintain the premiums on his life insurance policy – he never did, so I paid the premiums each month. My son-in-law and his uncle inherited a peice of land with a mobile home on it, my daughter who has been married to him helped him payoff his uncle for the land recently. My son-in-law actually took her end of year bonus (this year 2006)and paid his uncle off so that the land would be all his but with them divorcing we don’t know if my daughter has any legal right to the land since it was left to my son-in-law. He was married for 10 years. Can his ex collect any of his social security benefits when he starts collecting it? My husband and I have 3 nearly grown children, and wish to have a cooperative and amicable divorce. What is the best way to do this? I married a man and became pregnant, due to problems we seperated before the birth of my child…we went to court for a divorce and the father gave up all of his parental rights (on his own freewill). Our marriage is about to end and he is threatening me that he will take the children if I do not pay him off. He has never worked full-time and is claiming he can do this as he is the primary care giver. My husband was married 25 years ago and ex told him she would only ask him to pay support if she needed it. So for the past 25 years no payment was made . Now the children are ages 36 and 25. My divorce was filed and granted by the judge 1/12/1983, a month prior to this date my attorney called me to say my divorce was final. I married the man I have been with now for nearly 25 years. Unbeknownst to me, we were married 3o days before my divorce was final. It has been kept a secret all these years,the husband of the first marriage is deceased,what do we need to do to get this marriage made legal or can we? “My husband married back in 1970. He then had an accident which left him in a coma. His wife went back to her family and did not bother to stay with him. He came out of the coma not realizing he was married. He married someone else who has since died. He then married again and divorced and then married me two years ago. Now the woman he married first has surfaced and refuses to divorce him, He has gone to live with her and walked out on me, where do I stand? He refuses to divorce me.” My wife and I are separated. Last week I checked my credit, and it is loaded with her medical bills. I never signed anything saying I would pay her medical bills. My ex-husband is verbally abusive. We have a 9 month old and he will say ugly things about me in front of our son. He tells me I get on his nervous and cusses at me. He calls me names, and he calls me several times during the day and night even when I ask him to stop. What can I do? I have been divorced for 3 years, my ex-wife contacted me and said that she was going to go back to court to try and get 1/2 my 401 K and pension. In the divorce agreement it states that I retain all rights to this. Can she reopen this after 3 years? The family law system is very much weighted against fathers. To compound matters, it’s very easy for women to manipulate the family law system to assure just about any outcome they want. How do I prevent divorce proceeding slander? How does one go about serving a notice of divorce by publication of a newspaper ad? Does one need to do this if the other party has already been served, but the court found errors in the paperwork? What should someone do when their husband kicks them out of their home, is behind on the payments on the home and business that are in both of their names, and has become addicted to drugs? Hours after getting married, the groom assaulted the bride, and she left. Can she receive money for emotional distress in the divorce proceedings? Nowhere in law but in family law is there such a blatant disregard for the premise “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” A spouse’s own divorce investigation into her husband’s online adultry activities may actually be considered cyber stalking. When a non-married couple splits up and both people are on the lease, what can they do and what are their property rights? And when one of them threatens the other and pins them down, that meets the definition of domestic violence. If a married parent, with no pending divorce or separation, and no court orders, takes their child out of state without the other parent’s permission, are they guilty of interstate parental kidnapping? Is failure to disclose that one is an alcoholic grounds for a marriage annulment?
