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Family Law - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Capacity
      - Compliance
        
        License
        
        Waiting period between license and ceremony
        
        Expiration date
        
        Age
        
        Medical testing
        
        NOT ISSUED WHEN
        
        Bigamy
        
        Incest
        
        Sham
        
        Incapacity or cannot understand nature of acts
        
        Lack of consent due to duress or fraud
        
        Solemnization
      - Consent
    - - Elements
        
        Cohabitation
        
        Conduct (holding themselves out to be married)
        
        Consent/Intent
        
        Capacity
    - - when an innocent party participated in a ceremonial marriage and believes in good faith
        that the marriage is valid, but they later discover that there was an impediment to the marriage
    - - Non-UPAA
        
        Fair and reasonable AND
        
        Procedural fairness and substantive
        
        Voluntarily
        
        time-pressure and the opportunity to be represented by independent counsel
        
        Full Disclosure
      - UPAA
        
        Involuntariness (fraud, duress, coercion) OR
        
        Unconscionability when executed and lack of reasonable knowledge or disclosure of
        the other’s assets and obligations.
  - - - Void
        
        Treated as if it never happened
        
        Incest
        
        Mental Incapacity
        
        Bigamy
      - Voidable
        
        Requires dissolvement
        
        Age
        
        Impotence
        
        Intoxication
        
        Fraud/Duress
        
        Lack of intent
        
        Defenses
        
        Unclean hands
        
        Estoppel
        
        Laches
    - - Fault
        
        Based on specific grounds
        
        adultery, cruelty, desertion (abandonment), habitual drunkenness, bigamy, imprisonment, indignity, institutionalization
        
        Defenses
        
        recrimination, unclean hands, connivance (consent to the marital wrong), condonation, collusion, provocation, insanity, consent, justification
      - No Fault
        
        Irreconcilable differences
    - - Separation agreements
        
        define property division, spousal
        support, child support, custody, and visitation
        
        Merge with final decree
        
        May be invalidated by fraud or unconscionability
      - Before divorce, some states require parties to separate for a period of time (e.g., one year).
    - - Clearly explain process and control proceedings
      - Not coerce or improperly influence a party to make a decision.
      - impartial and disclose any conflicts of interest
    - - Relevant factors
        
        Financial resources of both parties
        
        Standard of living during marriage
        
        Time it will take for receiving spouse to find employment or finish education
        
        Length of marriage
        
        Contributions to marriage
        
        Age and health of both parties
        
        Marital misconduct such as adultery (only in some states)
      - Types
        
        Limited Duration
        
        Rehabilitative
        
        Permanent
        
        Reimbursement
      - Modification
        
        party seeking modification has the burden of establishing a significant and continuing
        change in circumstances
        
        Cannot be vol. reduction of income
        
        Court may consider if paying spouse incurs new obligations,
    - - Settlement Agreement
      - Community Property (equal division)
      - Equitable distribution
      - Distinguishing MP and SP
        
        SP
        
        Gift or inheritance
        
        Excluded from agreement
        
        Award or Settlement
        
        Encumbered
        
        Conveyed for value
        
        Acquired before marriage
        
        MP
        
        Acquired during the marriage
        
        Specific Assets
        
        Goodwill of Bus
        
        JDX Split
        
        Sick/Vacay Days
        
        JDX Split
        
        Retirement/Pension
        
        If during marriage, yes
        
        Future Interests
        
        No
        
        Social security benefits
        
        No
        
        Post separation property
        
        If before divorce, yes
        
        Unexercised stock option
        
        If during marriage, yes
        
        Personal injury or Workers Comp
        
        MP approach
        
        If cause of action during marriage, yes
        
        Allocation approach
        
        Pain and suffering, no
        
        Loss of consortium, no
        
        Lost wages, loss of earning capacity, medical expenses: yes if during the marriage
      - Relevant factors
        
        length of the marriage, prior marriages, health/age/income of the spouses, contributions to education/child-rearing, future needs, education, non-marital assets, child custody, spousal support, and standard of living; marital fault is not a factor unless it has an economic impact (gifts to mistress)
      - Hotpotch Approach
- - - - Specific on guidelines
      - courts may deviate and consider
        
        Age
        
        Special needs
        
        Best interests of child
        
        Standard of living during marriage
        
        Parties assets
      - Modification
        
        Showing of substantial change in
        circumstances
        
        Timing: only prospectively
      - Termination
        
        age of 18 or
        
        t beyond the age of majority when the
        child is in college (subject to reasonable parental demands)
  - - - Visitation rights
        
        court may deny visitation if contact would seriously endanger a child’s physical, mental, or
        emotional health
        
        Unwed biological father must show commitment
    - - primary caretaker
      - Child's preference
    - - Relocation
        
        Requires a legitimate and reasonable
        purpose
      - Court considers
        
        Child's best interest
        
        relationship with non-relocating parent
        
        Age and needs
        
        child's preference
        
        quality of life of relocating parent and child
- - - - State can intervene with MED and VAC
  - - - A state court may grant a divorce to one spouse if she is domiciled in the state, even if it does
        not have personal jurisdiction over the other spouse.
    - - Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA)
        
        governs when a state has personal jdx over an out-of-state parent in an action to establish or enforce child support or establish paternity.
        
        A court has JDX over an out of state parent when
        
        he is personally served within the state or consents to jurisdiction
        
        Engaged in sexual intercourse in the state, and the child may have been conceived by
        that act of intercourse.
        
        Resided with the child in the state in the past
        
        child support obligations
        
        Modification
        
        Under the UIFSA, the state that issued the initial child support order has continuing
        exclusive jurisdiction to modify the child support order
        
        Exceptions
        
        2 more items...
        
        Enforcement
        
        If a receiving parent moves to a new state, they may register a child support order in the
        new state, which will give full faith and credit to the support order.
      - Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA)
        
        Initial custody determination (home-state jurisdiction)
        
        Significant-connection jurisdiction (if home-state jurisdiction is not met)
        
        Exclusive-continuing jurisdiction
        
        Courts that make the initial ruling in a custody case until:
        
        Neither party resides there OR
        
        child no longer has a significant connection to the state
        
        No home state JDX
        
        significant connection
        
        substantial evidence in the state concerning the child’s care, protection, training and personal relationships
        
        Child's home state
        
        Was the child’s home state and the child is absent from the state, but one parent still lives there.