On Your Own; Your Legal Right @ Eighteen On Your Own formatted final version | Page 69

The court can make a variety of orders when it grants a divorce or
dissolution, including ordering either party to pay spousal maintenance
(alimony) to the other. The spousal maintenance order may require
regular monthly payments or a lump sum payment.
If you have children, the court will also issue an order determining parental
rights and responsibilities for the children, which means custody, visitation
rights, and the amount of child support to be paid. In determining
parental rights, the court’s decision is controlled by “the best interests of
the children.” The court can change spousal maintenance, custody,
visitation, and child support at a later date, but only if circumstances
change substantially after divorce.
The court will equitably divide the “marital property,” which includes all
property that you and/or your partner own, wherever it is and however
and whenever it was acquired. This does not mean that all of the property
will be divided equally or according to any formula. It means that it will
be divided in a way that the court considers to be fair and equitable to
both parties. To do so, the court will consider the length of your marriage,
the age and health of each party, how much each of you contributed
toward acquiring the property, including the value one of you may have
provided as a homemaker, the value of the property given to each of you,
what you and your partner may have done to increase or decrease the
value of your property, and your respective economic circumstances at
the time the property is to be divided. The court may also take into
account the conduct of each party during the marriage, including adultery,
abuse, or desertion.
You and your partner can agree on all the issues in your divorce before
you go to court. Or you may be able to agree to many of the issues. You
can then write down and sign your agreement and offer it to the court as
a “stipulation.” An attorney can be very helpful in this. A stipulation may
simplify the divorce process. The court will review the negotiated
settlement and either accept it or hold a hearing at which it will take
evidence and then issue its order.
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