The economic picture has affected divorce like it has affected all other areas of our lives. Couples are under additional strains as the property that once had enough equity to allow both to move on are now underwater in debt. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/us/30divorce.html?_r=2&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink (Breaking Up Is Harder To Do After a Housing Fall) Couples wind up living together during or even after their divorces and making many other compromises. As you consider or move into divorce, all aspects of debt and equity need to be evaluated.
Hawaii is a no fault divorce state, which means that it's enough to say the marriage is irretrievably broken. No personal matters about the marriage problems need to be stated in the divorce papers and you don't have to prove anything. This also means that your spouse does not have to consent - you can get a divorce even if your spouse does not agree.
In order to file for divorce in Hawaii, at least one spouse be a resident of Hawaii, but in order to be actually granted a divorce, at least one spouse must be a resident of Hawaii for six months and at least one spouse must have been a resident of the same county for at least three months.
Members of the military who are stationed here but deployed or living elsewhere are usually considered Hawaii residents, although they may also be residents of another state for divorce purposes. Our office works with deployed military members during their deployment to obtain divorces and address custody and child support by using a combination of email, extranet, digital documents, and Skype, although old-fashioned mail is still needed for original signatures on court documents.
An uncontested divorce for a couple without children used to be finalized in as little as five or six weeks, but now with the state budget crunch and the court keeping positions unfilled, you should expect eight weeks. On the other end of the spectrum, a contested divorce, with or without custody issues, can easily take a year and a half or more. (A divorce is uncontested when the parties agree on the terms before filing and cooperate fully in signing papers; a contested divorce requires conferences, negotiations, and possibly hearings.If your spouse has an attorney, I consider the divorce to be contested)
In the case of an uncontested divorce with no children or property where the parties can still communicate, it is entirely possible to file all papers and get a divorce without an attorney. The forms may be found at the Family Court's website.
(It is a time-consuming process, so set aside an entire morning when you take your forms in to the court for filing.)
Alimony is not automatic, so it may be that neither party has to pay alimony. Factors include earnings and abilities to support oneself, whether one spouse has been out of the job market, the length of the marriage, and whether there are small children or other reasons a spouse cannot work. Alimony may be awarded temporarily to allow a spouse to gain marketable education or otherwise rejoin the work force.
Preparation for divorce
Whether the divorce will be contested or uncontested, it is a good idea to begin preparing your financial matters beforehand, even before informing your spouse that you want a divorce or filing papers, because while a divorce decree divides your assets and debts between you, creditors, future lenders, and the IRS are not bound by the decree.
This does not mean hiding assets or moving joint assets into your name alone without your spouse's permission or knowledge - such actions will cause you problems in the courts and draw out the time and expense of divorce. It does mean that tax returns should not be signed without careful scrutiny, and the partner planning to divorce should ensure that the tax bill is indeed paid. The IRS may be able to hold you responsible for your spouse's tax debts from the marriage.
If possible, convert your credit card accounts into your individual name, making sure not to assume large marital debts that belong in shared accounts. It is important not to have your name on a credit card account that your spouse is assigned to pay, because these are the accounts for which missed payments are most likely when a financial pinch occurs, and this can ruin your credit despite court orders for your spouse to pay.
If your spouse may become vengeful, or if you are the one leaving the marital residence, opt out of pre-approved credit offers now by going to www.optoutprescreen.com. If you are no longer in the marital residence and these offers keep arriving, the former spouse will have easy access to credit in your name.
This is a good time to make sure that your spouse does not expend large amounts of money on toys or other personal gratifications like expensive travel. That money will be lost to the marital estate.
It is also helpful to gather all the paperwork you will need for the divorce and for your future life. Once divorce papers are filed, things may become contentious, and logic and preparation become difficult.
Gather the marital financial information - make copies of bank statements and other financial statements; make copies of IRS records; keep accurate records of your household's expenses.
If you have been served papers
Check your papers carefully as soon as you receive them. They contain deadlines that you must meet.
If you've been served papers and think you are willing to sign the proposed decree sent to you, but want to be cautious and have an attorney look it over for you, we can sit down with you, discuss your situation and the proposal, and give you advice on whether it's harmful to you or not. This is done on an hourly basis, with no retainer fee necessary.Remember, once you sign & submit the decree, it's final.
If you do not agree with your spouse's statements in the papers, do your research and get advice as soon as possible. It is less efficient to go to an attorney just days before a hearing or deadline- deadlines for filing responses or getting exhibits to the other side may have been missed; it may be more difficult to get required documents together; it may simply be that you can't find the right person to represent you on such short notice and your options are now limited.
Divorce FAQs
I know my spouse and I are going to disagree over the our property and money. How does the court divide things?
Hawaii is an equitable division state. Usually money that one person brings into the marriage is theirs to take out of the marriage (with exceptions, of course), as are gifts and inheritances. Appreciation in that property, though, may be subject to division between the spouses, and the percentage of given to the spouse may vary with the length of the marriage. Assets acquired during the marriage with earnings generally belong equally to each spouse, regardless of how much each did or did not contribute to the acquisition or upkeep of the assets. Retirement is divided according to a formula. Of course, it is not that simple, but that's the basic framework.
How much will it cost?
First, for everyone, the court filing fee is $175 without children and $225 with children.
For an uncontested divorce, we charge a flat fee and many attorneys do the same. Our fee is $1500 which includes the filing fee. For contested divorces, unlike most other attorneys, we have both flat fee and hourly arrangements, with flat fee arrangements available for the various stages rather than for the overall divorce. It is not possible for us to give an estimate of the cost of an entire case.
How long will it take?
It's impossible to answer that one too. Each case is very different in that regard. One case may have business valuations, multiple properties and custody issues yet settle within a year. Another case may have one property and no children but take much longer. And many cases settle suddenly somewhere in the process.
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