Results tagged “legal separation” from Family Lawyers & Divorce Attorneys Blog

News sources are reporting that a settlement has been reached in the divorce of Shaquille O'Neal and his wife, Shaunie.  Shaquille and Shaunie were married back in December of 2002 and have four children together.

In 2007, O'Neal filed divorce papers in Miami-Dade County.  However, the divorce filing was later withdrawn as the spouses agreed to work on their marriage instead of divorcing.  Then, in November 2009, Shaunie filed paperwork for legal separation.  In the paperwork, she listed irreconcilable differences as the grounds for separation. 

According to the attorney representing O'Neal's wife, Florida courts will have jurisdiction on matters pertaining to the divorce, such as alimony and division of property.  All child support issues will be decided upon by the courts of California.

Shaquille O'Neal is a 4 time NBA Champion as well as an Olympic gold medalist.  At this time, he plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers and admits to having troublesome times with his wife. 

If you are going through a divorce and you need legal assistance, click here to find a family lawyer!

According to WPVI, a divorce-help website recently reported that popular social networking site, Facebook, is linked to 20% of divorces in the United States. 

The news was released after a survey was conducted by Divorce-Online.co.uk.  The British website provides essential resources for spouses who are going through divorces and legal separations.  According to the site, of the studied 5,000 divorce papers that were filed in the United States, 989 couples said Facebook played a role in their breakups.  This means that 20% of the divorces filed were Facebook related.

Mark Keenan conducted research for the British site.  He said that, "The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to."  The study also reveals that social networking websites like Twitter and MySpace were also cited as grounds for divorce.

The site is not sure if Facebook caused divorces or if it just provided means to spouses who would have been unfaithful anyway.  It also claims that some divorce lawyers crawl sites like Facebook to build stronger cases on behalf of their clients.

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Spousal support, commonly referred to as alimony, is a type of monetary payment that is made by an independent spouse to a dependent spouse after a divorce or a legal separation. 
Before a wife or husband is awarded spousal support, the court will consider several things, such as:  the income of each spouse, the occupation of each spouse, the age of each spouse, the health of each spouse and the length of the marriage.  The court may also consider other related factors before making a final decision. 

There are several different types of alimony that may be awarded to a dependent spouse.  The different types of spousal support are detailed below:

Temporary Spousal Support:  this type of support is temporary in nature and is given when spouses are separated, but not divorced.  Once the spouses divorce, permanent alimony may be awarded.

Rehabilitative Spousal Support:  this type of spousal support is awarded after the husband and wife have divorced, but is also temporary in nature.  The main purpose of this type of alimony is to provide support for a dependent spouse until he/she is able to return to work or is able to support him/herself. 

Permanent Spousal Support:  this type of support is long-term/permanent and is awarded after spouses have divorced.  When permanent alimony is awarded, the independent spouse will have to monthly payments to the dependent spouse indefinitely.  The money is provided so that the dependent spouse has food, shelter, clothing and other day-to-day necessities.

Reimbursement Spousal Support:  this type of support allows one spouse to "reimburse" the other spouse.  For example, if one spouse worked so that the other could go to school, the working spouse may request reimbursement spousal support during divorce proceedings.

If you would like to receive more information your state's spousal support laws, click here to find a family lawyer close to you!