Sunday 11 August 2013

Divorce Law in Maryland

According to the guidelines of Maryland Family Law, marriage is considered as a civil contract entered into by two parties. When due to some personal unavoidable reasons, couples want to end their marriage completely, i.e. complete dissolution of marriage, it is termed as divorce. Divorce in Maryland is nothing but the end of a marriage by the order of the court. In Maryland, there are two types of legal end to the civil contract termed as marriage and they are:
• Absolute Divorce
• Limited Divorce or Legal Separation
Absolute Divorce
The complete dissolution of marriage that ends the matrimony completely is called Absolute Divorce in Maryland. Once the Maryland Court of Law gives the verdict of Absolute Divorce, the civil contract between the couple ends and they are free to remarry, if any of the spouses wish to do so.
In such divorce cases, either husband or wife has no legal right on the property of each other. If any property is owned by them jointly, it automatically gets consideration of 'property held in common' and each one owns one-half of that marital property after dissolution of matrimony.
There are some additional grants they may be provided by the Maryland Court of law during or after an absolute divorce:
• Custody (Solo or Joint) of the child, if any.
• Child Support payment grant
• Alimony payment terms and conditions
• Personal property disposition
• Equitable distribution of joint properties, assets, etc. Apart from all the above orders, the court also grants, almost in all the cases and especially to women, the right to resume the birth name. This right is legally granted to both the spouses.
The other kind of divorce granted by the Maryland Court of law is Limited Divorce. It is a legal decree where the court grants a legal separation to the couple who wish to be separated. It is granted to those couple who wish to get separated but not entirely through absolute divorce.
Many a times, couple wishes to get divorced, however, they do not have any convincing legal ground to produce before the judge. In such cases, Maryland Divorce Lawyers suggest spouses to apply for Limited Divorce, which can be used as a ground for absolute divorce in future.
Generally, those couples wish to get legal separation that need financial assistance or support from the other spouse but cannot settle their personal differences. Legal separation is granted to such couples and this is not a permanent divorce.
Some basic features of Limited Divorce or Legal separation are as follows:
• It is not a permanent divorce
• Remarriage is not permitted for any spouse
• It cannot terminate the spouses claim over the marital property, however, settles them as per the court's order
• Decisions about alimony, child custody, child support, possession of property are all on temporary basis
• Date of separation is documented
• Couples can jointly apply for the discharge of the separation decree
• After the legal separation is revoked, couples resume their previous status of being legally married
Belli, Weil & Grozbean is a nationally recognized law firm in Maryland. Our "Super Lawyers", Stuart Grozbean and Henry Weil have been named in "Who's Who" and have been interviewed and quoted in newspaper articles and on TV. We understand the complexities of the Maryland divorce laws and answer your questions when you need the advice.


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