What are the issues that need to be resolved in a divorce or dissolution?
Many times, people fail to understand what the various issues are in a divorce or dissolution. If the spouses do not understand what is at stake, they fail to make the correct decisions. Set forth below are various issues that apply to many divorces and dissolutions that spouses need to consider.
Most parties have a good understanding of their assets. The assets consist of any piece of tangible (something you can touch) property and intangible ( something you cannot touch ) property.
Tangible assets include your furniture, appliances, vehicles, real estate, boats, campers, etc. Even if those assets are not completely paid for, they will still have some net value. Example, you may still owe $ 30,000.00 on your house, however it has a value of $ 50,000.00. The equity you and your spouse have in the home is $ 20,000.00. That equity is an asset.
Intangible assets consist primarily of financial investments. They can be as simple as a savings or checking account or as complex as CD's, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, IRA's, 401K plans and any other pension you or your spouse have through your place of employment. Some of the pension plans that employees have are the single greatest asset of the marriage, yet, many people overlook them. Both spouses are entitled to their respective share of the value of the pension earned during the marriage.
Most people understand what their debts are, however many times, people believe a debt incurred during the marriage just in their name or their spouses name, means the other spouse has no responsibility for it. That is incorrect. If the debt was incurred during the marriage, it is typically not relevant as to whose name it is in.
Spousal support is the new name for alimony. Spousal support is typically ordered by the court for long term marriages where the parties have unequal income. In other words, the courts try to use spousal support to compensated the lower earning spouse for a period of time with the income from the other spouse. Unlike child support, there is no formula available to gauge what the spousal support should be in Ohio. This means the spouses are subject to the discretion of the judge handling their case. As a result, spousal support in Ohio varies significantly depending upon the judge and the county you are in.
If there are minor children, then a divorce or dissolution will require resolution of all the child related issues. The first issue consists of custody or who the residential parent will be. In Ohio, parents are allowed to enter into joint custody or shared parenting plans, however, one parent is always going to receive the label of being the residential parent. The residential parent is the parent that has the children with them the majority of the time and that will incur the greatest financial burden in raising them. The residential parent receives child support from the other parent. In Ohio as in other states, a formula has been created that determines what the child support is to be. The formula is called the Ohio Child Support Guidelines. The formula is 2-3 pages long and takes into account the income of both spouses, the child care expenses, and other relevant factors such as other minor children the spouse may have outside this particular marriage.
In addition to resolving custody and child support, the parties must also deal with issues concerning visitation and health care costs. A typical Stark County Visitation Order allows the non-residential parent visitation every other weekend from friday evening until sunday evening. Additionally, the non-residential parent receives the right to visitation during the middle of the week and various holidays are alternated between the two spouses.
The final issue concerns medical expenses for the minor children. The parties must set forth who will maintain health insurance on the minor children and what responsibility the two spouses will have for medical bills not covered by health insurance.
