A common set of questions or concerns with clients or litigants in divorce is why does a divorce take so long (since the statute only says sixty days have to pass), and why can the divorce process become expensive in terms of costs (custody evaluations) and legal fees.
At a simple level, a divorce lawyer has had to untangle the emotional dynamics of a case – legally advocating a clients objective in the case as it relates to division of assets in a just and reasonable manner and determining custody in the children’s best interests. There are numerous bodies of law that come into play to help the lawyer with this complex task that partially accounts for the time and costs.
Reviewing these key resources may be useful to you as you help an attorney ascertain key facts relative to your case:
The Dissolution Act or Paternity Act (statutes).
The Child Support Rules and Guidelines.
The Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines.
Each trial court’s local rules if any, such as exchange of financial worksheets, attending a parenting class for helping the children (if there are any), and mandatory mediation.
The Relocation Statute.
In almost every case, at least where there are children, these bodies of law come into play. We hope you find this background information of the foundational law on divorce and paternity useful to review. This will help you understand that like marriage and building a life together, separating such is also an equally difficult task that is not usually agreeable—at least at the initial shock “this is happening to me”—in the beginning.
The more you understand this, the better job you can do of asking key questions and providing your attorney with the relevant information he or she needs to advance you case to the goal of your legal objectives. This blog post was written by attorneys at Dixon & Moseley, P.C. It is for general educational purposes and not specific legal advice. Dixon & Moseley, P.C. advocates practice divorce law across the State of Indiana.