Lump Sum Spousal Support

Spousal support can be one of the most difficult issues to resolve in divorce. Spousal support, which is also referred to as alimony, involves an obligation by one spouse to make financial payments to the other spouse. Permanent spousal support involves the payment of support after a divorce is granted and until a further court ruling modifies or terminates the obligation. Permanent spousal support may be ordered in situations involving long-term marriages or in situations where one party cannot earn a living due to a disability or injury. Such spousal support can be paid in lump sum or on monthly basis.

Impotence as Grounds for Annulment of Marriage

In some states, impotency can be grounds for annulment. If a spouse is physically impotent and the other spouse was unaware of the impotency prior to the marriage, the marriage can be voidable in some states. If a marriage was never consummated, this can constitute viable grounds for annulment. Impotency occurring after marriage is generally not in itself ground for annulment.

Property Division in Divorce: Personal Injury Awards

Personal injury awards are paid to injury victims to compensate for personal injury, pain and suffering, lost wages, loss of future earning capacity, loss of consortium (i.e., loss of companionship), medical expenses and damages to property when the loss occurred due to another's negligence. In a divorce, a question might arise as to whether such awards can be considered as separate property or marital property, i.e. joint property of the spouses. There are two primary methods by which courts typically classify such awards as marital or separate property, i.e. the analytic approach and the mechanistic approach.

Community Property in Divorce

In a pure community property system, property acquired during marriage other than by gift or inheritance from a third party is presumed to be community property and will be divided equally between the parties in divorce. Property that a spouse brings into the marriage or acquires during marriage by gift or inheritance from a third party is presumed to be separate property. Community property states generally consider a gift from one spouse to the other to be the recipient's separate property.

Property Division in Divorce: Partition

For purposes of divorce, "partition" is a legal process that divides property, usually real property, into fractional shares for the spouses. Divorce or legal separation establishes grounds for partition in a divorce for jointly-owned marital assets of the spouses.