Oklahoma divorce information

Prenuptial agreements, also known as “prenups” and “antenuptial agreements,” have always received bad press and negative connotations. However, prenups have become more common in recent years, especially for second marriages, blended families, and individuals who are concerned about protecting a separate business, family gifts or inheritance. 

Antenuptial agreements are commonly believed to be a negative occurrence prior to marriage because they are predicated on the couple eventually divorces. This is a common misunderstanding that your family law attorney will quickly dismiss.

Other reasons a party would be hesitant to create a prenuptial agreement include poor reactions from future in-laws, financial embarrassment, having to disclosure information to an attorney, and dealing with unresolved issues in an individual’s relationship.

Don’t let naysayers or your own opinion about antenuptial agreements steer you away from creating a document that can actually be beneficial to your relationship.

Know What You Are Getting Into

Knowing the financial status of your spouse can help you prepare for what may happen should a divorce occur. This is not to say that you should be thinking about divorce when creating an antenuptial but knowing how property and debt is divided ahead of time is hugely beneficial.

In a prenuptial agreement you and your spouse are able to agree on how assets and debts are divided instead of the division defaulting to Oklahoma equitable division law. For example, you can decide on an amount for alimony in advance, which may be different from what the court would have awarded without a prenup.

With an antenuptial agreement your family law attorney has protected you in the case of a divorce and provided an avenue for a low-conflict and less expensive divorce.

Practice Discussing Financial Issues Before an Issue Arises

Family law attorneys report that finances are one of the top five issues couples argue about, and typically are not something couples look forward to discussing with each other. A prenuptial agreement forces you and your spouse to reveal all financial information up front, hopefully minimizing any future arguments about financial management.

Couples usually must address a financial issue because one or both spouses have found themselves in a serious financial situation. Before finances become an issue, ask your family law attorney to draft an antenuptial agreement which requires you to discuss and practice how to handle difficult financial situations before they arise.

By having this conversation before marriage, your prenup allows you to talk about the future and ensure you are both on the same financial page as you enter marriage.

Build on the Basic Foundational Issues of Compromise and Communication

Any family law attorney will tell you that discussing any difficult subject (e.g. in-laws, physical and emotional intimacy, money) helps the couple building strong communication skills and learn how to compromise.

For an antenuptial to be valid, both parties must be independently represented by a family law attorney. However, the most successful prenuptial agreements are created when the couple openly and honestly communicates with each other.

Couples learn a lot about each other in the drafting of a prenup – values, motivations and concerns – and your spouse’s will come out in the drafting process creating a more intimate understanding of your spouse.

Successfully completing a prenup helps to reassure each spouse that they can resolve issues with open communication and that they are capable of compromise.

Initial Consultation with a Tulsa Family Law Attorney

The antenuptial agreement does not have to cause embarrassment or hurt feelings, in fact, the process may actually bring you closure as a couple than you were before.

An experienced family law attorney is essential when drafting or reviewing your prenuptial agreement to ensure your rights are protected and reduce any surprises in the process.

Contact an experienced Tulsa family law attorney when you need to help with a prenuptial agreement.

For a low-cost confidential consultation, call now: 918-924-5526.

 

When a child custody modification is ordered, most likely the parent that now has more custody time with the child will require additional child support to be paid to them each month by the other parent.

However, before we come to that conclusion, it is important to understand how your child support attorney will help you receive the financial support you need if you take on additional custodial responsibility of your child.

Modification Requirement

As with many motions that your  Tulsa family lawyer will request, typically the burden to prove the necessity for the Oklahoma child support modification rests with the party that is filing the motion.

Thus, you and your child support attorney must prove that a substantial change in circumstances that necessitates the change in child support amount.

The substantial change, also referred to as a material change, usually involves the assessment of a change in several different factors that would make the child support payment unfair, impossible, or the necessity to increase the amount for proper care and support of the child.

Some common examples of a substantial change include:

• One parent’s income has increased or decreased
• Parenting time has increased or decreased
• Cost of health insurance increase or which parent pays health insurance has changed
• Child care is no longer needed or is now needed
• Child has emancipated
• One of the parents has a new child from a new relationship (either natural child or adopted)

Judges also consider several factors when determining how to assign child support; these include:

• parenting time,
• parent’s income or income potential, and
• any expenses related to the care of the child.

For a more detailed explain on modification you can click here.

How Your Child Support Attorney Can Help

Having an attorney advocate on your behalf is especially important in family law matters. The family law system is convoluted to say the least, and requires expert knowledge of the law.

Although many litigants believe it is possible to represent themselves, which in some cases it is, most of the time representing yourself results in an unnecessary prolonged case, resulting in orders that are not in your best interest – simply because you neglected to argue the correct element of law.

Your child support attorney can help you gather the correct documents, present child care expenses, how the change in custody time results in a greater child support payment each month, and will help get you the maximum child support that you deserve.

Initial Consultation with a Tulsa Child Support Attorney

Even though a change in custody seems like an easy argument when requesting additional child support, if you don’t have a child support attorney properly presenting your case, the process may become more complicated than it needs to be.

Hiring a knowledgeable and compassionate family law attorney will ensure the process is expertly conducted and your interests are well represented.

Contact an experienced Tulsa child support attorney when you need to go through the Oklahoma relocation process.

For a low-cost confidential consultation, call now: 918-924-5526.

 

Divorce is a very difficult process. However, it can be even harder if the client-attorney relationship is suffering. There are many reasons why a client may want to fire their family law attorney. Some of the reasons are valid while some reasons can be from miscommunication or differing expectations. 

Regardless of the reasons, there is important information to consider before firing your attorney and issues you definitely want to watch out for in your case.

Identify the Issue

The most helpful first step in deciding whether or not to fire your family law attorney is to understand what the actual issue is that is bothering you. Do you feel like your case is moving too slowly or results you were hoping for are not coming to fruition?

Other common issues clients experience involve the attorney not returning calls, or that they are being charged too much and have little to show for it. These issues can and should be brought up with your attorney at the first occurrence.

Reasonable Expectations

You and your Tulsa family law attorney may have completely different goals and expectations concerning your case. However, if you do not discuss these ideas openly, both of you will become frustrated.

The divorce process and court procedure is nothing like most people have experienced in their lives. The closest they have come is watching court room shows on television, or friends or family talking about their experience. The family court system moves a lot slower than most think. The process requires (many times) multiple hearings on a single issue, and can last more than a year or two.

Make sure the issue is not your unrealistic expectations about a court system that may or may not be working in your favor.

When the Attorney is the Issue

There are several common issues that will force you to reconsider whether your family law attorney is right for you. Consider the following.

• Not returning phone calls for several days or ever
• Missing court appearances
• Failing to update you on your case
• Promising to do something and then not follow through
• Yelling at you, insulting you, calling names
• Refusing to send your bill with itemized costs

These events, if not addressed when you first bring the issue up, are good reasons to look for another family law attorney before your next hearing.

Court Procedure

If your hearing is coming up soon, there may be a problem with changing your family law attorney before the hearing. You may need to request permission from the judge to fire your attorney. The judge may grant your request based on your answers to the following questions.

• Will you proceed with your trial on schedule even if you do not have an attorney by the trial date?
• Will you ask for a continuance?
• Will you proceed with your case even if you are unable to find an attorney that is willing to represent you?

Most judges do not have an issue granting permission to fire your attorney, however if you are in the middle of the trial, or a trial fast approaching, judges are reluctant unless you are willing to stick to the schedule.

Initial Consultation with a Tulsa Family Law Attorney

When the attorney-client relationship breaks down, this can be damaging to your case and extremely frustrating. Your family law attorney is supposed to be your advocate, so when you feel like that is not the case, it is time to rethink your legal team.

Hiring a knowledgeable and compassionate family law attorney will ensure the process is expertly conducted and your interests are well represented.

Contact an experienced Tulsa divorce attorney when you need to go through the Oklahoma relocation process.

For a low-cost confidential consultation, call now: 918-924-5526.

 

Many individuals neglect an important issue both during and after a divorce. If you and your spouse created an estate plan during your marriage, chances are you may not have the same wishes in your estate plan that you have now. 

Neglecting to consider your estate plan during your divorce and failing to update your estate plan after a divorce can have serious consequences for you and your family. We highly recommend consulting with a divorce attorney and estate attorney (often an attorney or law firm practices both areas of law) in order to properly agree on property distribution and appropriate updating of the estate plan.

In addition, consulting with a tax attorney is also important when you are going through the divorce process. Asset distribution can have serious tax consequences that may affect how you structure your estate plan in order for you and your estate to avoid high tax payments.

Review Beneficiary and Fiduciary Designations

Chances are that your spouse was designated as your beneficiary on life insurance policies, stocks, bonds, and countless other assets and payable on death accounts. However, you can only change the beneficiaries on the assets the judge allows you to in the final order.

The U.S. Supreme Court held that an ex-wife was allowed to keep the life insurance award and pension as the rightful beneficiary because the ex-husband forgot to change the beneficiary after the divorce.

In addition to reviewing your beneficiaries, you should review the following designations:

• Trustee and any alternate trustees
• Executor or Personal Representative of your will and any alternates
• Agent designated under your power of attorney or health care directive
• Named Guardian of your children

It is important to designate individuals you trust and who allow you to retain control even after death.

Retirement

Many times, retirement must be divided upon completing divorce proceedings. There are two ways a retirement can be divided if it is a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). The spouse receiving a portion of the other spouse’s retirement can choose to accept a lump sum at the time of divorce to be distributed in monthly allotments.

The alternative is to accept a portion of the pension to be set aside and paid out upon the other spouse’s retirement. The spouse receiving the pension is entitled to any interest earned from the time of divorce to the distribution after retirement.

How retirement is distributed upon death is extremely important to have planned out and memorialized in an estate plan. Having an experienced Tulsa divorce attorney ensures the QDRO is executed properly with the best interest of the client in mind.

Jointly Held Property

The last issue that is important to highlight is how property is titled. At divorce, title is not typically changed, unless the spouse that is distributed the property changes the title (this typically requires the other spouses approval or a divorce decree).

Primarily, divorce does not change joint tenancy titling of property. If, during the divorce process, a spouse dies and property is held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, then the property automatically passes to the other spouse. As a result, if the spouse who died had children from a different marriage, they may lose their inheritance.

Initial Consultation with a Tulsa Divorce Attorney

Having a divorce attorney that is highly skilled will ensure that your assets are properly distributed. Your divorce attorney will also be able to assist in referring you to an equally skilled estate and tax attorney to ensure your future is protected.

Hiring an knowledgeable divorce attorney will ensure the process is expertly conducted and your interests are well represented.

Contact an experienced Tulsa child custody lawyer when you need to go through the Oklahoma relocation process.

For a low-cost confidential consultation, call now: 918-924-5526.

 

Under Oklahoma law, animals and family pets are still considered property during a divorce proceeding, and thus will be distributed as property under the equitable distribution doctrine. 

The necessity to determine how family pets are divided during divorce proceedings is evident in the number of people choosing to forgo having children, and instead, adopting “fur babies.”

Being able to anticipate how a court will likely divide your pets helps your divorce attorney better prepare you for the proceeding and collect evidence to present as to why the animal should reside with you.

Equitable Distribution Analysis

Oklahoma uses the doctrine of equitable distribution in deciding how assets should be divorced during a divorce. Equitable means fair, not necessarily equal. The court generally looks to the length of the marriage, future potential earnings of each spouse, and who contributed or put the most effort in acquiring the particular asset.

In the instance of family pet division, there have been cases that outline a few factors to consider when deciding which party will keep the pet. These factors include:

• who is the primary care taker,
• which home environment is best for the pet.
• financial ability to care for the pet, and
• bond between a particular spouse or family member.

However, there are exceptions to dividing the pet as if it were part of the marital property. Sometimes, a party can argue that the pet was their separate property before the marriage or that their spouse gave the pet to them as a gift.

Family Pet as Separate Property

Separate property is any property that is acquired before marriage and after separation. If you adopted your pet prior to marriage, it is possible to argue that your pet is actually your separate property, especially if you are also the sole caretaker.

However, if you use community funds, usually your income during marriage, to provide medical care, food, or additional care to your pet, the “marital community” may be entitled to reimbursement.  Your spouse may be entitled to part of the reimbursement.

Some of the elements the judge may consider when determining whether a pet is separate property are:

• who adopted or purchased the pet,
• when the purchase took place, and
• best lifestyle for the pet.

Your Tulsa divorce attorney will help you collect the documents and evidence you will need to establish that your pet is in fact separate property.

Family Pet as Gift

It is not uncommon for a spouse to give the other spouse the gift of an animal for a Christmas or Birthday present. A gift from one spouse to another is considered separate property, even if the gift was given during the marriage, this is an exception to the marital property rule.

It would be especially helpful if the spouse that is seeking custody of the animal had pictures of receiving the gift, or statements by guests that attended the event where the gift was given.

Again, your Tulsa divorce attorney is best able to assist you in preparing a case that clearly shows the pet is your sole and separate property and help you provide the documentation to prove that

Initial Consultation with a Tulsa Divorce Attorney

Having a divorce attorney that is highly skilled in proving the distinct nature of property and assets, will ensure that you are able to retain custody of your animal companion.

Hiring a knowledgeable divorce attorney will ensure the process is expertly conducted and your interests are well represented.

Contact an experienced Tulsa divorce attorney when you need to go through the Oklahoma relocation process.

For a low-cost confidential consultation, call now: 918-924-5526.