Weekly Divorce Tip: Taking The Next Step Towards Support
Last week your assignment was to learn more about alimony, spousal support and maintenance, and ask your lawyer or husband for financial help if you needed it. This week it’s time to do more than just make a casual or informal request for support, especially if your husband resoundingly said “NO” when you asked for his financial help.
If you and your husband are working towards settling your divorce, dissolution or legal separation without court involvement and he is resistant to paying support, ask him if he’ll meet with a mediator to discuss the issue. The presence of a neutral third-party facilitator with legal knowledge may help you negotiate a reasonable support payment.
If you hire a mediator, he or she will work with you and your husband in an informal setting and help you reach a mutually acceptable agreement. The final agreement will not become a court order unless it is in writing, signed by each of you and submitted to the court with a request that it be made a legally enforceable court judgment - so it is important that you memorialize any support obligations and obtain the court’s endorsement. An experienced family/divorce mediator can draft and file the appropriate documents you need. To get started, find a mediator in your city or county with experience in divorce, dissolution or legal separation and schedule a meeting as soon as possible.
If, on the other hand, your husband is being unreasonable and unwilling to compromise in any way, research your state’s procedures for scheduling a hearing where a judge can decide the issue. Begin with your state’s divorce forms, which usually include pre-printed motions that enable you to “move” or ask the court to order your husband to pay spousal support, alimony or maintenance. The names of the appropriate legal forms differ by state and may be called an “Order to Show Cause”, like they are in California and New York, or “A Motion and Declaration for Temporary Order” as is the case in Washington. Once you complete these forms you must file them with the court clerk, select a hearing date and serve the documents on your husband or his attorney before a date certain. The deadline for serving your legal forms on your husband or his attorney is designed to ensure your husband has sufficient notice of your request for support and time to respond in writing before you both appear before a judge in court. The deadline and other detailed requirements for the legal process are generally found in your local court rules, which are preprinted and mostly available online or in your local law library.
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Posted by ModDiva on April 28th, 2008 filed in Hearing, Motion, Spousal Support, Divorce, Uncategorized |
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