Legal Guides

The term alimony comes from the Scottish legal concept of aliment, which required a husband to provide for his wife her lodging, food, clothing, and necessities in the event they divorced. In North Carolina, alimony has evolved into monetary payments that may be paid from a supporting spouse to a dependent spouse. To have a ...

Understandably, the issues of child custodyand child supportoften go hand-in-hand. Though divorce may end the marital relationship, it certainly does not end the relationship parents have with their children - or their obligation to support those children. And without question, most parents want to support their children - out of love, and not simply because ...

As children grown and as life circumstances change, children's needs may change too. In some cases, one parent or the other loses a job. In other cases, unanticipated medical expenses arise, making it difficult to make ends meet. In still other cases, a child may be diagnosed with a learning disability that requires special education ...

Where child supportis concerned, typically, both parents are in agreement that their children should continue to be supported and nurtured to every extent possible. While parents may disagree on exact dollar figures, generally, the desire to support the child is there. Alimony, however, can be quite a different scenario. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the idea of paying ...

Beyond deciding on what negotiation and dispute resolution process will likely work out best for your family, it can also be helpful to really spend some time thinking through the nuts and bolts of the agreement itself. You may be wondering any number of things about how to craft, enforce, or change a custody agreement ...

Arbitration is another alternative dispute resolution option- one that falls somewhere between mediation and full-fledged litigation on the spectrum of structure and rules. Essentially, an arbitration is a private trial in which the parties hire their own "judge" - the arbitrator - to finally decide the issues between them. In an arbitration, the parties will ...

If you have recently had friends or family members who have gone through a divorce, it is possible that you may have heard the term "collaborative divorce." If so, this is because it has become a very popular method of resolving divorce issues in recent years. Collaborative divorce is the most recent significant development in ...

Divorce is a complex process. After all, untangling two lives that have become intertwined over many years isn't easy. There are many decisions you'll have to make during the divorce process. As you prepare to make those decisions - decisions regarding the division of property (including your assetsand debts), the potential sale of your home, ...

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Approximately nine percent (9%) of all existing wills are invalid for one reason or another. If you die without a valid will, you die intestate, and lose control over what happens to your property. This usually also results in your estate paying a lot more to settle your affairs, which leaves less assets for your ...

N.C.G.S. § 50-6 is the statute in North Carolina that addresses absolute divorce. N.C.G.S. § 50-6 provides in part that "Marriages may be dissolved and the parties thereto divorced from the bonds of matrimony on the application of either party, if and when the husband and wife have lived separate and apart for one year, ...

The termination of alimony largely depends on the terms set forth regarding duration, and whether the alimony award is put in an unincorporated separation agreement (contract) or a court order (judgment, consent order, or incorporated separation agreement).Alimony that is provided for in a court order, whether this is awarded in an order pursuant to trial, ...