Tag: Divorce Planning

Getting a Religious Divorce

Just in time for the holidays is the problem of religious divorce. Many women are stuck in their former marriages because their secular divorce was not enough to allow them to remarry in their religion. This post looks at the problems and solutions for getting a religious divorce.

The Religious Problem

I’ve written about the issue of religious divorce many times. The religious nature of divorces for many couples, particularly for Muslim and Jewish women, complicates settlement.

That’s because religious courts have no enforcement authority in the United States, and the First Amendment of the Constitution prevents secular courts from intervening in purely religious disputes.

Also, religious authorities are very critical about the secular enforcement of divorce as it can contravene religious law. Among religious people, there’s also a reluctance on using secular courts against their coreligionists, which discourages people from getting help in state court.

Islamic Divorce

The Economist recently reported on Shirin Musa, and her bitter religious divorce experience which ultimately inspired her to help women caught between legal and cultural worlds.

A resident in the Netherlands, Shirin was unhappily married to a man from her native Pakistan. In 2009 a Dutch judge divorced them, but her husband would not grant an Islamic divorce.

Although she lived in secular Europe, her husband’s refusal to grant a religious divorce mattered. If she remarried without a religious divorce, she could be considered an adulteress under Islamic law. She also risked religious punishment if she ever tried to return to Pakistan.

So, Shirin sued her former spouse through the Dutch secular courts. In 2010 she received a landmark judgment: her ex-husband would be fined $295 a day, up to a maximum of $11,795 as long as he refused to cooperate.

The sanction had the desired effect on her ex-husband She then persuaded the Dutch parliament to make holding women in such “marital captivity” a criminal offence, in theory punishable by jail.

Jewish Divorce

Jewish women share a similar problem to Muslim women. Under the strict interpretations of Jewish law, only the husband can grant a divorce document, called a “get.” Without a get, the woman is still religiously married, regardless of how long it’s been since the civil divorce.

Without a get, a Jewish woman can’t remarry and have more children, lest she be declared an adulterer and her children from the second marriage shunned by the community.

Women in this situation can be trapped for years as their childbearing years fade away. In Hebrew, many call them agunot, or “chained women.”

Solutions

First, you may want to secure a religious divorce before even filing a secular divorce. This prevents the husband from using the religious divorce as a bargaining chip.

Securing a religious divorce before filing a civil divorce also prevents another common problem: imams and rabbis stepping in to negotiate large cash payments in exchange for a religious divorce.

Another civil legal remedy is a prenuptial agreement. Under a prenuptial agreement, the spouses could agree to arbitrate the marital dispute, and the husband agrees to pay the wife a set amount per day until he grants a religious divorce.

The Economist article is available here.

 

No-Fault Divorce Around the World

A British woman who alleges she was “desperately unhappy” being married lost her divorce. Unlike Florida, many places require proving fault, you can lose your case, and have to stay married!

As the BBC reports, Tini Owens, 66, asked the Court of Appeal to overturn a family court judge who turned her down when she asked to divorce her husband Hugh Owens, 78.

You read that correctly. Of all of the issues facing you when you divorce: who gets custody, how will I support myself, what are the tax implications of alimony, in some places you could actually lose your request to divorce and have to stay married.

The appellate court judges in Great Britain upheld the trial judge’s ruling. Mrs. Owens claimed that her marriage had broken down, but Mr. Owens disagreed.

The Husband argued that the couple still had a “few years” to enjoy. And the trial judge agreed with him. The judge ruled the Wife’s allegations were “of the kind to be expected in marriage”. Parliament decreed “it is not a ground for divorce that you find yourself in a wretchedly unhappy marriage, though some people may say it should be.”

Florida is a “No-Fault” state. No-fault laws are widespread across the United States, but not everywhere. No fault laws have helped to reduce animosity in divorces by reducing the need to distort, lie, and air dirty laundry.

I’ve written about no-fault divorce before. Florida abolished fault as grounds for filing a divorce. The only reason you need to file for divorce in Florida is that the marriage is “irretrievably broken.” But as the case of Mrs. Owens shows, in other places, that is not always true.

While Florida is a No-Fault state for divorce, it is interesting to know why people divorce. A recent study out of the UK reveals some surprising reasons why people divorce. Interestingly, adultery is a declining factor.

It appears that couples are less likely to cite adultery as the cause of a divorce than they were 40 years ago. However, claims of “unreasonable behavior” (a British term) have skyrocketed to more than 5 million divorce cases.

The BBC article is available here.

Ben Affleck: Should You Separate or Divorce?

Jennifer Garner filed for divorce from her husband, actor Ben Affleck, almost two years ago, but has yet to officially end her marriage despite a long-term separation.

Affleck has reportedly even been staying in a spare bedroom on the family’s Los Angeles compound. A few weeks back, Us Weekly reported that the couple would keep on with their divorce despite rumors of a possible reconciliation.

The next day, though, E! News claimed that the couple has a “fluid” relationship and that “nothing has really changed” for the couple who has “been working on their relationship for the past few years” and remain in a long-term separation.

Not obtaining an official divorce decree, and having a long-term separation, seems like a good idea, but there are risks. I’ve written about the risks when people separate for years before filing for, or dissolving, their marriages.

Control Over Assets

If you are in a long-term separation, you can be totally out-of-the-loop about your financial well-being. You don’t know what your spouse is earning, spending, investing, selling or buying. In Equitable Distribution states, like Florida, you may be on the hook for some of the debts accumulating during the long-term separation.

Hiding Assets

While you may see no immediate need to legally dissolve your marriage, a long-term separation allows a spouse to plan for a divorce. And, spouses usually plan to make sure that valuable, or difficult to trace, assets are gone when the time comes to disclose your assets and liabilities.

Relocation

Florida has laws governing all aspects of the divorce process, especially as they relate to children. During a long-term separation, your spouse could be transferred to another city, state, or even another country. You should know that the laws relating to divorce and interstate custody are not the same in every state.

Alimony Laws are Changing

For the last several years, the Florida Legislature has tried unsuccessfully to change our alimony laws. The Florida House and the Florida Senate have already introduced bills this year that would dramatically change alimony in Florida. During a long-term separation, alimony laws can change.

The new bills require use of factors to calculate alimony; provide presumptions concerning alimony awards based on the duration of marriages; provide for imputating income in certain circumstances; provide requirements related to taxing and deducting alimony; and prohibit courts from changing the duration of alimony award.

Meeting Someone New

While meeting someone new may make you happier and more fulfilled, it may not help your settlement negotiations. When spouses enter new relationships, they might spend your share of marital assets on their new love interest: buying gifts, going to expensive restaurants, and taking fancy vacations.

Whatever the reasons Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner have had for putting off their divorce, there are pitfalls of a long separation you should be aware of.

The Vanity Fair article is here.

Deportation: Family Law’s New Weapon

President Trump signed Executive Order 13768, allowing individuals to be more easily deported. The Executive Order may turn out to be a tough, new tactic in family law cases.

On January 25, 2017, President Trump signed Executive Order 13768 entitled: “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States”. This Executive Order allows individuals to be deported for a variety of reasons, and also restricts sanctuary.

I have written about divorce planning before, especially as it concerns taxes and other issues. The new Executive Order may impact many divorce and family law cases in South Florida, because this area has attracted many immigrants, and parents may be deported during proceedings.

New Deportation Procedures

A federal immigration enforcement program being implemented by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — has become the subject of nationwide commentary.

In some jurisdictions, any time an individual is arrested and booked into a local jail, his or her fingerprints are electronically run through ICE’s immigration database.  This allows ICE to identify non-citizens, and potentially initiate deportation proceedings against them.

Increasing Deportations

Executive Order 13768 provides that ICE will not exempt classes or categories of removal aliens from potential enforcement. All of those presently in violation of our immigration laws may be subject to arrest, detention, and, if found removable by final order, removed from the United States.

That includes people convicted of fraud in any official matter before a governmental agency, and people who “have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits.”

Impact on Family Law

By expanding the risks of deportation, the Executive Order creates potential new weapons for people planning to get divorced, or open any kind of family law proceeding – from child support to divorce.

For example, merely threatening to have an alien spouse or partner deported may be a way of preventing a battered spouse from seeking protection against domestic violence.

Additionally, a parent who has a child with an alien, or is married to an alien, could use the threat of deportation if the alien parent tries to file a complaint in court to establish or collect support.

South Florida Cases

This is a big problem in South Florida, a place that welcomes immigrants. As CNN reports, the Miami-Dade County Mayor has instructed the County to comply with all immigration detainer requests received form the Department of Homeland Security.

The Executive Order increases the chances a parent can be deported. This new law provides ammunition for citizens litigating against aliens in family law cases.

The CNN article is here.

Divorce and Privacy

How private is your information after filing for divorce? Divorce and privacy come to mind after former Florida governor Charlie Crist announced his divorce from his wife Carole.

After nine years of marriage, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist has filed for divorce. For a career politician like Crist, divorce and privacy are important for career survival.

The former governor has taken the right tone: “I think the world of Carole. She’s an amazing person. It just didn’t work out for us,” the former governor told the Tampa Bay Times. “I wish all the best for her.”

Crist, 60, said the divorce should have no impact on his service. He and Carole, 47, own a condo in downtown St. Petersburg, and details about whether he will continue to live there have yet to be worked out.

Divorce exacts a heavy financial and emotional toll. For many people, including businessmen, politicians, celebrities and others, this means preserving your good name and legacy for future generations.

New York and several other states try to protect the privacy of litigants by granting document access only to litigants and counsel. This might create a false sense of confidence for clients though, because sometimes the other party leaks information purposefully.

I have written about the topic of divorce privacy before. It is very important to protect the privacy of parties to a divorce, and prevent identity theft, especially when Florida court rules make disclosure of sensitive financial information mandatory.

Some initial steps you can take to protect your divorce privacy include changing the passwords to your computer log-in screen, email accounts, social media sites, such as Linkedin and Facebook, and even your voicemail at work and at home. Change these passwords will help to keep your information private.

Florida recently adopted a confidentiality rule to better protect social security and bank account numbers for instance. But Florida court filings are not private. Privacy – and confidentiality of court filings – are easily overlooked issues when filing for divorce, and something you should be aware of in deciding to file.

The Miami Herald article is here.

Cheating and No-Fault Divorces

Not every state has no-fault divorce. That means you have to prove grounds, such as infidelity, and your divorce could take a decade or more. Why? Because you can waive grounds for divorce.

Mississippi is one of only two states without a true “no-fault divorce” law. If one spouse doesn’t want a divorce, he or she can often stave one off for a long time. In one reported case, it was more than a decade.

As WTSP in Tampa Bay reports, there’s an effort in the Mississippi Legislature to make some reforms to their divorce laws. But such efforts have failed in the past. A measure to create a “no-fault” divorce based on length of separation has already been watered down early in the legislative process this session.

Getting a divorce in Mississippi is difficult and expensive. Lawmakers and the religious lobby in this Bible Belt state have been reluctant to make it any easier or cheaper, mainly in efforts to uphold the institution and sanctity of marriage.

Yet, Mississippi still ranks continually near the top of states in its divorce rate — seventh highest in one recent study.

Experts say Mississippi’s antiquated divorce laws, little changed over a century, put low-income people at a disadvantage — particularly homemakers who don’t have resources to fight a lengthy court battle. They likely hurt the state’s overall economy, clog the courts and cost taxpayers.

In Mississippi, you still have to prove grounds for divorce, so a spouse who condones, or forgives marital fault can’t get a divorce unless the conduct happens again.

In a case of infidelity then, the non-cheating spouse who reconciles with the cheating spouse, may be found to have condoned the infidelity; and may have lost the grounds for divorce until it  happens again.

No-fault laws are the result of trying to change the way divorces played out in court. No fault laws have reduced the number of feuding couples who felt the need to resort to distorted facts, lies, and the need to focus the trial on who did what to whom.

I’ve written about no-fault divorce before. Florida abolished fault as grounds for filing a divorce. The only reason you need to file for divorce in Florida is that the marriage is “irretrievably broken.” But as the case of Mississippi shows, in other states, that is not always the case.

The WTSP article is here.

Angelina’s Plan to Destroy Brad

By The Law Offices of Ronald H. Kauffman of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Divorce on Wednesday, September 28, 2016.

Brad Pitt is an angry, unfaithful villain. No, not a new role. Rumor has it that Angelina Jolie is running a smear campaign. This may be a form of divorce planning if it turns out to be true.

As Us Weekly reports, the most disturbing story came from TMZ September 22:

The site reported that the actor – who Jolie, 41, his partner of 12 years, praised as a “wonderful father” in 2013 – became “verbally abusive and physical with his children” in front of their mother aboard a private jet September 14.

But while Jolie’s friends insist Pitt indeed has a terrible temper, Us has confirmed the Maleficent star long plotted to leave him – and gain physical custody of their six children.

I’ve written about how not to behave during the divorce process, and also on how good relations with your Ex could even save your life. Whether you’re in court or outside of court, how you treat yourself, your children and the other parent of your children counts.

The divorce process forces you to view your spouse as an enemy. It is easy to let those feelings take over. The results can be tragic, as the tension can cause you to say and do things in front of your children (or in the press) that they should be protected from.

Steps you don’t want to take, but should, are things like: not yelling in front of your children, taking the high road when dealing with problems, and respecting your soon to be ex-spouse.

According to Us Weekly,

Jolie has been deeply unhappy with Pitt after years of fighting and had been quietly laying the groundwork to leave her husband. A yelling incident on a plane may have provided her with an opportunity to get the upper hand in a custody battle and keep the kids overseas.

Multiple sources confirm Jolie barely gave her husband notice that she had decided to seek a divorce, and blocked Pitt’s number from her phone. It is rumored that Jolie and the children are staying in a Malibu house.

Meanwhile, Brad Pitt, it is claimed, hasn’t seen the children since Jolie filed for divorce:

“Angelina filed the papers a minute before the courts closed. He didn’t have a lawyer or anything,” says a Pitt source. “He has been crying constantly.”

Jolie was given a humanitarian honor at the 2013 Oscar Awards.

The Us Weekly article is here.

Social Security and Divorce – Plan Ahead

On behalf of Ronald H. Kauffman, P.A. posted in Planning for Divorce on Monday, August 12, 2013.

Anyone planning for divorce needs to consider the impact of Social Security benefits. This is especially true if you are close to the age at which you become eligible for benefits, but haven’t started to receive them yet. If you think Social Security claims, benefits and entitlements are confusing, you are not alone.

In general, once you are divorced, you can receive spousal Social Security benefits based on an your ex-husband’s or your ex-wife’s earnings, as long as your marriage lasted at least a 10 years, you are a minimum of 62 years of age, are not married, and do not qualify for a higher benefit based on your own past earnings.

As a matter of divorce planning then, and theoretically, if you were only married 9 years, you may want to put your divorce plans on hold so that you could receive spousal benefits.

Additionally, if an ex-spouse delays claiming Social Security benefits until full retirement age, they can start to collect a spousal Social Security benefits check of 50% of an ex-spouse’s retirement benefits.

They might also be able to continue working – and even increase the eventual amount of their own personal Social Security retirement benefits – by delaying retirement, until age 70. When an ex-spouse reaches age 70, their Social Security monthly retirement check would be approximately 132% larger than it otherwise would have been, and even larger depending on annual cost of living increases.

One complication is that a divorced spouse can only receive a spousal Social Security benefit 2-years after a divorce, if an ex-spouse has not yet applied for his or her own retirement benefit.

There are a lot of other Social Security Administration rules which can complicate this straightforward analysis. The rules regulating Social Security could change at any point in time, and suddenly delayed benefits might no longer be recognized. Or the criteria for divorcing spouses can be changed to 5 years from the 2 years stated above.

What happens if the Social Security rules change? It may depend on the status and wording of the law at the time you divorce. So, not only can the current rules cause you immediate problems, but the plans you made – which were correct at the time you made them – might be wrecked by a rule change.