Q&A:  Family Law
ELEMENTS OF DIVORCE

1.   Establish the grounds for the divorce; incompatibility, abandonment,
habitual drunkenness, domestic violence, etc...  

2.  Identify, categorize and distribute the marital property.  There are three
types of property:  marital property, separate property and property that
contains both a marital and separate component.

  • Marital Property is generally any property acquired during the
    marriage by either of the parties regardless of how the property is
    titled.  Marital property is divisible in the divorce.

  • Separate Property is generally any property that a party owned prior
    to the marriage or acquired by gift or inheritance.  Separate property
    belongs to the individual and is not divisible in the divorce.   

  • There are circumstances where separate property can be mutated
    into marital property through commingling or can contain both a
    marital and separate component.

3.  Identify, categorize and divide the debts.  There are two categories of
debt:  marital debts and separate.

  • Martial Debts are any debts incurred by one or both of the parties
    during the marriage.

  • Separate Debts are generally any debts incurred by a party prior to
    the marriage or after separation.

4.  Determine what type of custody will best serve the child’s interests, joint
custody or sole custody.

  • Joint Custody is where the parties agree to work together and share
    in all the major decision-making for the benefit of the child, i.e. The
    school the child will attend; what religion the child will be involved in,
    whether the child should have an elective surgery, etc... Joint custody
    does NOT mean that the parties will automatically have equal time
    sharing (visitation) with the child.

  • Sole Custody or Primary Custody generally means that the sole
    custodial parent will be the one who makes the major decisions that
    affect the minor child.  Sole custody does NOT automatically mean
    the parties WON'T have equal time sharing (visitation) with the child
    nor does it mean that the non-custodial parent will only get standard
    visitation.   

5.  Establish a visitation schedule with the minor child.  There are generally
two types of visitation: unsupervised  visitation and supervised visitation.

  • Visitation schedules can be as creative as you want to make them so
    long as either; (1) the parties agree on the schedule; or (2) the Court
    finds that the schedule serves the child's best interests. Generally, a
    party will not be given less than standard visitation.

  • Supervised visitation is reserved for circumstances where the Court
    feels that a child will be irreparably harmed if the visitation with the
    parent is unsupervised.  Generally these are cases where there is a
    history or showing of domestic violence, child abuse, substance abuse
    or alcohol abuse.    

6.  Set child support.  Child support is set by a statutory formula.  Equal
time sharing with a child does not mean you will not have to pay child
support.  The formula generally involves the following elements to determine
if and how much child support should be paid.   

  • The parties' gross incomes;

  • Health insurance premiums.  Who pays it, how much is the  
premium,  how are the tiers of insurance set up through the employer
and how many people are on the policy;

  • Work or school related day care expenses;

  • The amount of child support actually being paid under any previous  
child support orders.

Note:  The Oklahoma Department of Human Services has a child support
guideline available on its website.  You can run a child support guideline by
clicking on the button titled "Links" to your left.  You will then be taken to a
page of various links.  One those listed will be a link for the DHS website.  

  • Child support also includes payment of a percentage of the child's
unreimbursed medical expenses and in some cases a percentage of
the child's agreed upon extra-curricular activity expenses.

7.  Alimony.  Is either party entitled to alimony.   Whether or not a party is
entitled to alimony falls within the Judge's discretion.  A judge will consider
many factors when making that type of decision.  Some of the factors the
judge will consider are:  Is the party in need of alimony; does the other party
have the ability to pay the alimony;  is the need for the alimony directly
related to the marriage; the ages of the parties; the health of the parties; the
length of the marriage; etc...  

8.  Attorney fees.  
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