children. This is essentially an order to preserve the circumstances as they are, until and unless you and your partner agree on what to do about them or the court makes an order concerning them.


The court can make a variety of orders when it grants a divorce or dissolution, including ordering either party to pay spousal maintenance (alimony) to the other. The alimony order may require regular monthly payments or a lump sum payment, funded in part by the transfer of property from one party to the other.


If you have children, the court will also issue an order determining parental rights and responsibilities for the children, which means custody, visitation rights, and the amount of child support to be paid. Child support is calculated according to Child Support Guidelines adopted in this state and is based on the incomes of the parents, among other factors. In determining parental rights, the court’s decision is controlled by “the best interests of the children.” The court may not prefer one parent over the other solely because of the parent’s sex or the child’s age or sex, and may not consider “abandonment” of the residence (i.e., who moved first) as a factor determining the children’s primary residence. The court can change alimony, custody, visitation, and child support if circumstances change substantially after divorce or dissolution.


At the conclusion of the divorce or dissolution, the court will equitably divide the “marital property,” which includes all property that you and/ or your partner own, wherever it is and however and whenever it was acquired. This does not mean that all of the property will be divided equally or according to any formula: it means that it will be divided in a way that the court considers to be fair and equitable to both parties. To do so, the court will consider the length of your marriage or civil union, the age and health of each party, how much each of you contributed toward the acquisition of the property, including the value one of you may have provided as a homemaker, the value of the property given to each of you, what you and your partner may have done to increase or decrease the value of your property, and your respective economic circumstances at the time the property is to be divided. The court may also take into account the conduct of each party during the marriage, including adultery, abuse, or desertion. If you disobey any of the court’s orders, you could be found to be in “contempt of court” and punished as the court sees fit, including being restricted from doing something, being required to do something, or being fined, jailed, or both.


If you are represented by an attorney in the divorce or dissolution, many of the details concerning maintenance, property settlement, and custody


On Your Own, 2008 Edition 31


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