10 Common Misconceptions Regarding Divorce Law
Here are the 10 Most Common Misconceptions Related to Divorce Law:
1. Separation
The first misconception is that you will have to be separated for at least 18 months before you can get a divorce. This is only true if you are looking to have a no-fault divorce. This is the best way to prove that the couple actually needed to get a divorce in the first place. But if you are looking for the irreconcilable differences divorce, then you will only need to be separated for about 6 months in order to get this type of divorce.
2. House
The second misconception that a Miami divorce lawyer can help you with is that if you leave your house that it is considered to be abandoned. You are not abandoning the house just because you moved out of it. This is just because you walked away from the home that you are living with your spouse, it does not mean that you walked away from the financial part of the home. Even though abandonment can be a reason for the divorce, it is not going to affect any of the assets that you have a financial interest in especially if you were still helping to pay for things in the house.
3. Prenups
The third misconception is that a prenup is only for the people who are wealthy. Of course, it will help when a person has a lot of assets before marriage. But you would be surprised at how well it will also help you even if you don’t have a lot of money. This is because you will be making an agreement about all of the things that you have before you even enter into the marriage. Therefore, if the marriage ends in divorce, you will have a lot less to argue about. It will also help if the finances of the relationship become difficult.
4. Alimony
The fourth misconception about divorce law in Miami is that you will not be able to get alimony because you are married less than ten years. In fact, there is no rule to when the alimony can be granted to a person. In other words, there is no set number of years that you have to be married in order to get the alimony. There are a lot of factors that will be considered when it comes to alimony like the age and health of both parties, duration of the marriage, and the ability to pay.
5. Legal
The fifth misconception is that legal separation is the first step in getting a divorce. There are a lot of states that don’t even recognize a legal separation. Instead, the states will grant you a limited divorce. This is mean all of the financial issues of the marriage will be settled before the marriage ends. Therefore, you will remain married and you will not be able to marry someone else until all of the financial aspects of the marriage have been officially resolved.
6. Children
The sixth misconception is that the parent who gets custody of the children will not be able to leave the state without the permission of the other parent. First of all, if that parent has custody of the child, then they can leave the state whenever you want to. But if there is a custody battle doing on or a problem with child support, then there might be a problem with leaving the state. But most of the time, the custodial parent will be able to take their child where ever that they want to like if they want to take the child on vacation.
7. Common law
The seventh misconception is that a common law marriage is the same thing is a regular marriage. A common law marriage is when a couple has been living as husband and wife for several years without the actual marriage. Most of the time, the common law marriage will be effective between seven and ten years of living together. But there are a lot of states that do not recognize a common law marriage. In other words, it does not matter how long you have been living together, if you never got a marriage license, then you are not married.
8. Adultery
The eighth misconception is that if the spouse commits adultery during the marriage, that person will not be able to receive alimony. As I mentioned before, there are several factors that will be looked at to decide whether or not a person can receive alimony and adultery is not one of those factors unless the judge thinks so. Therefore, if you have a judge that does not agree with adultery inside of the marriage, then there is a chance that you might not be able to get the alimony that you want out of the divorce.
9. Cheating
The ninth misconception in Miami divorce law is if your spouse cheating on you, then you don’t have to pay them any alimony. This goes back to all of the factors that the judge is going to look it when he decides who is going to pay alimony and how much alimony will be paid to that person. Most of the time inside of a family court, the judge will look at what would be fair in that particular case of divorce. This means that there is a good chance that the judge is not going to care who cheated.
10. Custody
The tenth misconception is that the father will never get custody of his children over the mother. It is true that a lot of mothers will be given custody of the children, but this is not always the case. This is especially true if it is proven that the father would be a much better parent than the mother would to the children. Most of the time, when the mother might not be the best but she stills custody, it could be because the father is not interested in getting custody of the children at all.