A legal separation is a legal procedure that allows a family court judge to settle certain matters for couples who are not living together, but who have not obtained a divorce. An individual asking the court for a legal separation cannot be at fault in causing the separation.
In a legal separation a court can order one party to pay child support or alimony. It can also award child custody or set a visitation schedule for children. Court orders in a separation can always be revised though, if circumstances change, and a judge can not make a final settlement of the property division in this procedure.
Legal separations are not very common, and as a divorce attorney I find that the majority of people who initially ask about legal separations ultimately decide that it is not right for them. I would explain this by the fact that if the parties are eventually going to get divorced, they will end up going through two court procedures instead of one, if they first file for a legal separation.
Legal separations are sometimes necessary though, if the parties are not planning to divorce and they need the intervention of the courts to determine issues concerning children or support.
No comments:
Post a Comment