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Getting a Divorce in East Tennessee: The basics.

 

Divorce is always difficult. However, with proper guidance and a level head, you can navigate the divorce process while minimizing the negatives. This guide provides a high level overview of what to expect in a typical divorce. 

 

First, we’ll begin with a meeting where we go over basics of your situation. We’ll need to get an idea of the assets at play and also the children and potential custody considerations. The two items which are fought over are assets and children. And of those two, children are the most hotly contested. 

 

We’ll first deal with the most difficult topics - who gets what. 

 

Assets: 

 

In Tennessee the law requires a fair and equitable distribution of marital assets and liabilities. This has the common connotation of an equal split. However, equitable does not necessarily mean equal, and there are times where a judge will award one party more of the marital assets. A judge will consider a number of factors laid out in Tennessee Code such as length of marriage, age of parties, earning capacity and many others. 

 

What constitutes a marital asset? In a nutshell, anything acquired during the marriage is a marital asset. This includes everything from retirement accounts, income, investments, real property, personal property, etc.

 

The items not considered marital property are assets that you owned prior to the marriage, assets you inherited (either prior or during the marriage), or gifts that you received. Now, it’s important to note that assets which begin life as separate property can change into marital property if they are mingled with marital property. Likewise appreciation of separate property can become marital property in certain circumstances. The nuances of these rules are very fact dependent, and we will do a careful look into your unique circumstances to determine what is marital and what is separate. 

 

As a recap: anything that you acquire during the marriage is marital property and your spouse has an interest in that property. The amount of interest depends on what is fair and equitable, and this generally means a roughly equal division of the property. 

 

Child Custody: 

 

In Tennessee, the court puts the best interests of the child as the primary goal in custody disputes. Courts strongly favor giving both parents visitation, but that doesn’t mean that there will always be equal visitation. The court will consider a number of factors when determining the best interest of the child and awarding visitation rights. This sometimes means that both parties will have joint decision capacity, but it often results in one parent being the primary decision maker for the child. 

 

Child Support:

 

In Tennessee, there are very straightforward calculations that dictate child support obligations. These are found in the Tennessee Child Support Guidelines.  These calculations are not necessarily the exact figure that the court will use to award child support, but they are the starting point, and for most cases they do wind up being the final determination of support. There can be deviations from the guidelines, but the reason for the deviation must be articulated and the judge must approve it. 

 

Alimony: 

 

Alimony can come in many different types of flavors in Tennessee, and it can be on either a temporary or permanent basis.  The court will consider a myriad of factors which are laid out in the Tennessee Code. Most factors are fairly straightforward and align with common wisdom. Factors include relative earning capacity, obligations, ability to pay, financial needs, duration of marriage, age and mental capacity of parties, relative fault of the parties, etc.. 

 

The procedural process of folding a divorce: 

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The first step is to meet with us so that we can gather information. We’ll need quite a bit of information about both you and your spouse. The reason that we request all of this information is that Tennessee law requires a filing of certain statistics which must be contained in the complaint for divorce. Once we have all of the required information, we’ll draft the complaint. Then you’ll need to come in and sign the documents in person. If you are not local then we can send the documents via email, you can print them off, sign them in front of a notary and mail the originals back to us. 

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Once we have signed originals, we will file the divorce. Filing of the divorce begins the process. It is at this point that the other party will be served with the divorce paperwork. We have process servers who are experts at getting people served, and we are happy to take care of this for you. Once service is effectuated, the other party may file an answer and typically mediation is scheduled. 

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Mediation is often done relatively early in the process as it provides clarity on what aspects of the divorce are going to be contested. In a large percentage of cases, mediation can settle the divorce and the parties may leave mediation in agreement. If this is the case, the divorce can be finalized relatively quickly. However, if there are still contested items, then the case may move towards full discovery and trial. If this route is taken, then the costs of the divorce quickly mount. So, it is often ideal to settle at mediation. 

 

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