Custody disputes between a minor child’s parents, grandparents, relatives, and/or others in a minor child’s life can arise in a variety of different cases – marriage dissolutions (divorces), paternity cases, and guardianships are just a few. Other times, one of the parties involved in a child’s life may petition for a modification of custody under certain circumstances. The type of evidence that you may be required to present may be different depending on the type of case you are litigating and the current custody status of the minor child ... Read More
14
Feb2019
31
Oct2017
Under the Divorce Act, the Legislature vests trial courts with great discretion to divide the marital estate in a just and equal manner. One consideration in any divorce is the award of statutory rehabilitation maintenance.
Rehabilitation maintenance1 is much narrower than alimony in many states because it only allows a trial court to award such for up to three (3) years when a spouse needs extra support while obtaining employment-related education or training.
There are four (4) considerations the trial court considers in making such an award:
... Read More
27
Jun2017
Most litigants speak of custody loosely today and take it to mean who has the children, with the other parent getting Indiana Parenting Time Guideline time with the children and paying child support. In other blogs, we have posted materials to differentiate physical custody from legal custody and parenting time.
This blog focuses solely on legal custody as more and more parents have differing life views that come into sharp focus and dispute during marriage and paternity cases—and today marriage and having a child is not ... Read More
15
Mar2016
In Indiana, the term custody includes two distinct concepts, namely physical and legal custody. Physical custody generally refers to the parent with whom the child will spend the majority of overnights with during a year. Legal custody focuses on which parent (or both) make major decisions for the children, focusing on health, education and religion.
This blog post explores these and modification and division of this legal decision-making. In a majority of cases, legal custody is not at issue at all or to the degree with physical ... Read More
20
Dec2012
In a divorce matter, child support and custody are often two (2) of the major issues being litigated or negotiated. However, while less common, determining spousal maintenance after the final decree is another common issue to be dealt with through the divorce proceedings.
As discussed in previous blog posts, there is no “alimony” in Indiana. However, there is spousal maintenance, which provides for one spouse to pay support to the other in limited circumstances. Those circumstances ... Read More
08
Dec2011
The Arguments, Policies, and Legal Theories Pro and Con
While parents sometimes vehemently disagree about the amount of child support to be paid (received by the custodial parent) to maintain the lifestyle of the child(ren) post divorce, which is a controlling policy under the Child Support Guidelines, most would acknowledge each parent should pay some amount of support for their minor children.
This is the simple part, but nevertheless a well-known area of dispute in ... Read More