If one gets their divorce advice from friends, they’ll likely find more than a few people who believe the following myths about marriage and separation. While a friend may be able to lend a sympathetic ear, one is better off calling an attorney for advice. Read on for some of the most common misconceptions on marriage, separation, and divorce.
Child Support and Visitation Are Tied Together
This scenario often occurs when a noncustodial parent becomes delinquent in child support, and the custodial parent decides to deny visitation as a result. As far as the law is concerned, visitation and support are unrelated issues, and parents cannot use one as leverage against the other. Custodial parents must hire a divorce attorney in Angola, Indiana, and go through the courts to enforce child support orders, and noncustodial parents must continue to pay support even if there are issues with visitation.
Adultery Means Losing Everything
Courts are coming to view divorce as the dissolving of an economic agreement, and in most cases, bad conduct isn’t considered during the division of assets. If a couple gets a no-fault divorce, adultery is not a factor in the ensuing property settlement. In certain situations, the judge may consider conduct occurring during the marriage, but the process is typically economic in nature.
One Spouse Can Deny the Other a Divorce
Before no-fault divorces became the norm, one spouse could prohibit the other from getting a divorce. For multiple reasons, vengeful spouses were very ingenious in devising ways to trap a partner in a loveless marriage. Today’s divorces are more liberal, and if one partner wants out, they cannot be forced to stay against their will.
Custody Automatically Goes to the Mother
Mothers do not automatically get custody, but they do in about 80% of cases, leaving the father to pay child support. In a contested divorce, the court must consider the children’s interests. To win full custody, one spouse must prove that the other is unfit to raise the children.
Divorces are often acrimonious affairs, and old misconceptions can make them even more contentious. By visiting Grimm & Grimm to hire a divorce attorney in Angola, Indiana, one can cut through the myths and misunderstandings, and work to achieve an equitable outcome.
