Family law is a multi-faceted area of law that deals with family relations, and encompasses such areas as: adoption, child custody and visitation, children's rights, child support, spousal support (alimony), separation agreements, civilian and military divorce (dissolution of marriage), marital property division (equitable division), elder law matters, estate planning, estates and trusts, wills and will contests, probate, insurance, cohabitation agreements, pre-marital (pre-nuptial) agreements, marriage and other legal issues pertinent to the family.

Family law courts generally hear cases pertaining to dissolution of marriage, legal separation of parties, nullity of marriage, child custody, child and spousal support, elder law legal issues, domestic violence petitions, and estate planning cases involving Wills, Will contests, guardianship, insurance, probate, trusts, and other estate related legal issues.

What is a legal divorce?

A divorce is a method of terminating a marriage contract between two individuals. From a legal standpoint, your divorce will give each person the legal right to marry someone else; it will legally divide the couple's assets and debts, and determine the care and custody of their children. Each state addresses these issues differently, but there are some relatively uniform standards. Each state does have some type of "no-fault" divorce laws that can significantly simplify the divorce process.

What is a no-fault divorce?

Traditionally, divorce was granted on the basis of some marital misconduct such as adultery or physical abuse. In these cases the "guilty" spouse was punished by getting a smaller share of the couple's property or being denied custody of their children while the "innocent" spouse was rewarded for being faithful to the vows of marriage. In a no-fault divorce, however, both parties agree that there is no "fault" involved in the grounds for divorce. A marriage can be terminated simply because the couple agrees that it is no longer salvageable.

What is a fault-based divorce?

A "fault" divorce is one in which one party blames the other for the failure of the marriage by citing a legal wrong. Grounds for fault can include adultery, physical or mental cruelty, desertion, alcohol or drug abuse, insanity, impotence or infecting the other spouse with a venereal disease.

What is dissolution of marriage?

Dissolution of marriage is a non-adversarial, "no-fault", legal proceeding to terminate a marriage. The parties file a joint petition with the court, requesting that the court review and approve the agreement that they have entered into, which has resolved all relevant issues such as division of property, allocation of marital debt, allocation of parental rights and responsibilities, etc., and requesting that the court terminate their marriage. All of the issues must be resolved or the dissolution procedure cannot be used.

How is property divided in a divorce?

Courts divide property between spouses using two different concepts: Community Property and Equitable Distribution. The laws in each state vary as to the factors it uses to determine the final property division.

Keep in mind, equitable does not mean equal. The goal is to award each spouse a percentage of the total value of the assets.

Generally, states that use the Community Property system classify all the property as either community property or separate property. Community property is owned equally by the spouses and divided equally at divorce. Separate property is kept by the spouse who owns it.

The community property states are: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
States using the equitable distribution system consider all the assets and earnings accumulated during marriage to be marital property and divide them fairly at divorce.