Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
A divorce does not happen overnight. In Alabama, an uncontested case still carries a mandatory waiting period, and a contested case can run several months to a couple of years. That gap is the problem a pendente lite hearing solves. Bills keep coming due, children still need a schedule, and someone has to pay the …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Family Law, Real Estate & Property Law
Can you close on a house in Alabama without your spouse standing next to you at the closing table? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The answer turns on one question: is the property going to be the primary residence you and your spouse live in? If it is, Alabama law treats it as a homestead, and …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Custody Rights, Family Law
DHR stands for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, and for most families it is the state agency they never expected to hear from. One phone call to a county DHR office can put a social worker on your porch within hours. That is why so many parents type some version of the same question …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
Who can be a witness in a divorce case? In Alabama, the short answer is almost anyone who saw something, knows something, or has professional expertise that bears on a disputed issue. The longer answer is where the real work happens. Witnesses can steer a contested case toward settlement or blow it apart on the …
Posted by Steven A. Harris | Custody Rights, Family Law
The short answer is no. If you share custody of your child in Alabama, you cannot pack up, change the child’s home base, and tell the other parent after the fact. Alabama has a specific statute that controls this exact situation, and it puts real teeth behind the notice requirement. Move first and explain later, …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
Co-parenting after a divorce is one of the hardest things most Alabama parents will ever do. You are trying to raise happy, secure children with a person you could not stay married to. That is a real tension, and pretending it away helps no one. The good news is that co-parenting is a skill, not …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
Divorce does more than split a household. It splits a health insurance plan, and for a lot of Alabama families that turns out to be one of the most stressful parts of the whole process. One spouse has been carrying the family on an employer plan for years. The other spouse, and sometimes the children, …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
No — Alabama is not a community property state. Alabama is an equitable distribution state, which means that in a divorce, marital property is divided based on what is fair under all the circumstances, not split automatically fifty-fifty. That one-sentence answer settles the question most people came here asking, and it also opens the door …
Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
Divorcing after fifty — what demographers call “gray divorce” — is the fastest-growing kind of divorce in America. The divorce rate for adults over fifty has roughly doubled since 1990, and for those over sixty-five it has climbed even faster, at the same time that divorce rates for younger couples have actually fallen. If you …
Continue reading "Common Issues When Divorcing Late in Life"
Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
Yes, the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure apply to divorces — fully. A divorce is a civil lawsuit, and from the day the Complaint is filed to the day the decree is signed, the same rulebook that governs a car-wreck case or a contract dispute governs your divorce: how the case starts, how each side …
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