No matter how resilient you are, you may have difficulty dealing with the divorce. Besides the emotional roller-coaster ride you are going through, you are expected to also understand the legal jargon, which can be confusing. If you are in Massachusetts, consider talking to law firms like Turco Legal, P.C., to understand the process better. In this post, let’s discuss the key terms related to divorces.
Child Custody
In Massachusetts, child custody can be divided into two segments – physical and legal. Legal custody allows one or both parents to be involved in deciding key aspects of the child’s life, such as religion and education. The next one is physical custody, which determines who gets to keep the child. The court decides custody matters on many factors, and it is possible that one or both parents get both physical and legal custody. It is also possible that both spouses share the physical custody of the child, although only one has legal custody.
Parenting Time
Parenting time refers to the time that the minor child gets to spend with the other part. For instance, if your child is staying with your spouse, you can request the court for parenting time, also known as visitation rights. In current times, visitation typically refers to supervised visitation or can be related to visitation rights of grandparents.
Child Support
Taking care of a child requires finances, and child support refers to the money that one parent pays the other. The child support money goes towards the education and other expenses of the child. The court will follow the Child Support Guidelines to decide on the matter. For the unversed, Child Support Guidelines refers to the worksheet that’s used by courts in Massachusetts to decide on key financial aspects concerning child support.
Marital assets
Marital assets refer to everything that the couple has acquired during the marriage, and the list will also include the debts. Things like family pets are also included in marital assets. Anything that either spouse owned before the marriage is considered separate property and will not be up for equal distribution. Like many states, Massachusetts is also an equitable distribution state, which means that all marital assets will be divided fairly, although that may not always mean equal parts.
If you have any questions about the Massachusetts divorce process, talk to an attorney without further delay, and they can guide you on how to take the next step.
