Whether your divorce is your idea, your spouse’s, or mutually agreed upon, it represents a significant transition and significant emotional upheaval. Because your parental and financial rights are at stake, having the professional legal guidance of an experienced Monterey divorce attorney is always in your best interest.Â
Every divorce is utterly unique, but they all involve the resolution of the same basic terms, which include:
If you and your divorcing spouse are able to resolve each of these through negotiations between yourselves, you will not need the court’s intervention on the matter and can maintain your own decision-making authority. If your negotiations stall, your respective divorce attorneys can continue on behalf of each of you, and there is also the option of divorce mediation.Â
In order to divide your marital property between you in a divorce, you will need to establish which assets are marital and which are separate. In order for an asset to be identified as separate, one of you must have owned it prior to marriage and must have kept it separate throughout the marriage. Keeping separate assets disentangled from marital assets tends to require considerable effort. Those properties that you and your spouse acquired during your marriage are marital, and in California, they – or their value – generally must be divided between you equally. Â
In California, child custody breaks down into legal custody – or parental decision-making authority – and parenting time, which sets the schedule that determines how you and your ex will divide your time with your shared children. You can either have relatively equal amounts of parenting time, or one of you can become the primary custodial parent.Â
Legal custody handles primary parenting decisions like the following:
Child support is set to ensure that both parents continue supporting their children financially. While many factors go into the calculation process, each parent’s earnings and the amount of time each is afforded with the children are the primary concerns. Even when parenting time is divided equally, however, the parent who earns more typically pays child support.Â
Only if your divorce leaves one of you without the financial means to continue supporting yourself at – or near – the same standard of living and if the other spouse has the financial means to help will alimony be awarded. Alimony is generally ordered only for the time needed to gain financial independence through further education or job training. Â
The formidable Monterey divorce attorneys at Miranda, Magden & Miranda, LLP, have a wealth of impressive experience guiding challenging cases toward beneficial resolutions, and we can do the same for you. To learn more about how we can help, please do not hesitate to contact us today.
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