Family Law

Question 1

factors to consider when dividing marital property

Answer 1

— income of the parties;

— assets of the parties;

— length of marriage;

— standard of living during the marriage;

— age / health of the parties

— earning potential of the parties

— [some states] marital misconduct

Question 2

what makes a premarital agreement enforceable

Answer 2

— fair and full disclosure of assets

— agreement is fair and reasonable (strong presumption toward enforcement if full disclosure of assets, even if terms seem unfair)

— voluntary (consider things like time pressure, sophistication of parties, oppy to consult counsel)

Question 3

best interests of the child

Answer 3

Mnemonic: FLIP DADS

F - financial ability of parents – who has the money?

L - lifestyle of parents – does one parent smoke crack or hang out with a shady crew?

I – Initial custody, courts will look at how custody was initially awarded

P – Primary caregiver (who has been the childs primary caregiver up until now).

D – Desires of the child (this one is pretty important if the child is older. Maybe a 6 year old can’t decide… but a 14 year old? That will be given way more weight).

A – Availability of parents and their respective living arrangements.

D – Domestic violence. Obviously prior incidents of domestic violence initiated by one parent will cut against them for custody.

S – Siblings should not be separated because one can find a lot of support and stability being with their sibling (unless you don’t like your siblings).

Question 4

laws governing family law issues

Answer 4

UPAA = Uniform Premarital Agreement Act
A conflicts-resolving law; apply the law of the state w/ most significant relationship to the agreement & marriage

UIFSA = Uniform Interstate Family Support Act
A jurisdictional law; allows long-arm PJ over non-resident parent to establish or enforce child support

UCCJEA = Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction & Enforcement Act
A jurisdictional law; streamlines jurisdiction to avoid disputes and ease enforcement of child custody and visitation orders

PKPA = Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act
Similar to UCCJEA; also requires states to give full faith & credit to other states’ custody determinations

Question 5

jurisdiction to determine child custody

Answer 5

home-state jurisdiction
State has jx to make custody determination in child’s home state:
— state where child has lived for past 6mo or since birth
— if child is now absent from the state, the state that was the child’s home state at some point within the past 6mo and 1 parent still lives there

significant-connection jx
applies if:
— no state has home state jx
— child & 1+ parent have significant connection w/ state
— substantial evidence in state regarding child

default jx
applies when no state has home state or significant connection jx

exclusive continuing jx
a state has exclusive jx until neither the child nor the parents live in that state, or the child no longer has a significant connection w/ that state

Question 6

fault-based grounds for divorce

Answer 6

— adultery

— cruelty

— desertion/abandonment

— habitual drunkenness

— institutionalization

— indignity

— imprisonment

— bigamy