Practice Areas: Separation Agreement
In the divorce process, sometimes a Separation Agreement may be considered. A Separation Agreement is a binding legal contract negotiated between the spouses to resolve questions of the rights and obligations each spouse has to the other in anticipation of obtaining an Absolute Divorce. A spouse can not be required to agree to a Separation Agreement. A Separation Agreement is not itself a divorce, and a Court case is still needed to have the Judge grant an Absolute Divorce, but a Separation Agreement can smooth out and speed up the Court process because much may have been resolved in the Separation Agreement. The spouses can enter into a Separation Agreement before a Court case is filed for a divorce, or while a Court case for divorce is still open and not yet resolved.
Very important in the negotiation of a Separation Agreement is determining that to which a person is entitled, since if a person does not know that to which a person is entitled then the person would not know what to seek to have included in any Separation Agreement. Examples of this include marital property rights and alimony. Other matters which normally are covered in a Separation Agreement include child custody, child visitation, child support, who gets to claim a child on income taxes, and other issues arising out of the dissolution of the marriage. It is most important that the Separation Agreement be as comprehensive as feasible, since if a matter is not included then the right to pursue it is generally lost, and normally the only changes a Court will consider making to the Separation Agreement concern child custody, child visitation, and child support.
It can be quite confusing and complicated. Do you know the law? Do you know how the law applies to the facts of your case? Do you know the procedures you would have to follow, such as what papers to file and the rules of evidence, so that even after you get in front of the Judge you are able to show why you should get what you should get? Shouldn't you find out? Shouldn't you have someone to protect your rights and interests? Only an attorney can do so for you.
Since 1986, Donald J. Arnold has been successfully representing individuals concerning custody and visitation. Mr Arnold is authorized to practice law in all state and federal trial and appeals courts covering Maryland. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland Law School, with honors, 1986, and was admitted to the Maryland Bar that same year, having passed the Bar Exam on the first attempt. He was admitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in 1987, the U.S. Court of Appeals (Fourth Circuit) in 1991, and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993.
For more information or an appointment call (410) 838-2542 or toll free outside Harford County 1-888-808-0449. Mr Arnold prefers initial potential client contact to be by telephone or appointment in person, with use of e-mail being reserved for existing clients after an appropriate attorney-client relationship has been formally established.
Legalese translated into real people talk.
