Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
Having your spouse “served” in a divorce means one specific thing: formally delivering the Complaint for Divorce and a court-issued summons to them, in a manner Alabama law recognizes, so that the court has proof they know about the case. It sounds like a formality. It is actually one of the load-bearing walls of the …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
Yes, you can divorce a spouse with a substance abuse problem in Alabama — and you do not have to prove the addiction to do it. Alabama’s no-fault grounds mean the divorce itself is available to you regardless of whether you can document a single thing. But addiction changes almost everything else about the case: …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
The difference between legal separation and divorce comes down to one fact with a hundred consequences: a divorce ends the marriage, and a legal separation does not. Legally separated spouses have a court decree dividing their lives — support, custody, property rights, even separate finances going forward — but they are still married. They cannot …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce
The first meeting with a divorce lawyer is an interview that runs in both directions. The lawyer is evaluating your case; you are evaluating the person who will steer some of the most consequential months of your life. Most people walk in with their story and walk out having asked almost nothing — then discover …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce, Family Law
If you suspect your spouse has a secret bank account, there are two phases to finding out — and they work very differently. Before a divorce is filed, you are limited to the evidence trail a hidden account leaves through everyday life: the mail, the pay stubs, the tax return, the pattern of money that …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce
After a divorce, the parent who gets the Child Tax Credit is the custodial parent — and for the IRS, “custodial” has nothing to do with what your decree calls the custody arrangement. It means the parent with whom the child spent the greater number of nights during the tax year. Count the overnights, and …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce
The first legal step to getting a divorce in Alabama is filing a Complaint for Divorce in the circuit court — but the first real step happens before any paperwork exists: deciding whether your divorce will be contested or uncontested. That single fork determines what you file, what it costs, how long it takes, and …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce
In a divorce, the plaintiff is the spouse who files the Complaint for Divorce, and the defendant is the spouse who responds to it. That is the entire legal difference. The labels describe who started the case — not who was wronged, not who is at fault, and not who the judge will favor. Alabama …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce
Child support in Alabama usually ends when the child turns nineteen — but it does not stop coming out of your check just because a birthday passed. That second part is the one that costs people money. The income withholding order your employer follows keeps right on running until a court tells it to stop, …
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Posted by Steven A. Harris | Divorce
Yes, you can sometimes go back and change a divorce agreement in Alabama — but what you can change, and how hard it will be, depends entirely on one question: where are you in the process? The answer is completely different for someone who signed a settlement agreement last week, someone whose decree was signed …
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