Tag Archives: irreconcilable differences

Divorce

Womp Womp – Mississippi Says No Common Sense Change for Family Law

1 Comment

Mississippi SENATE BILL NO. 2644 proposed common sense changes to divorce laws. The legislation met a common fate of most proposed changes to bring MS in line with 48 other states. IT DIED.

Description: Divorce; authorize where marriage is irretrievably broken.
Disposition:    Dead

The proposal would have allowed for a basis for divorce if parties had been actually separated for over 1-year and would have allowed the Chancellor to grant a divorce if he/she was convinced that the marriage was irretrievably broken.

That is all that was proposed. It failed. Again.

Matthew Thompson is a divorce/family law attorney and still supports common sense changes to family law in Mississippi, as he has for 18-years.

Divorce, General Legal

Mississippi Considers Irretrievable Breakdown…Again.

Leave a comment

Mississippi considers legislation to make common sense changes to Family Law.

Pending before the Senate is an Act to amend MCA SECTION 93-5-1, to delete the requirement of “WILLFUL AND OBSTINATE” from the ground of desertion and to provide an additional ground when the “COURT FINDS THERE HAS BEEN AN IRRETRIEVABLE BREAKDOWN OF THE MARRIAGE AND THAT FURTHER ATTEMPTS AT RECONCILIATION ARE IMPRACTICAL OR FUTILE AND NOT IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE PARTIES OR FAMILY…”

This proposal is significant because it would allow for a divorce if the parties have been separated for over a year, regardless of the reason and additionally would allow the Court to divorce a couple if the Court was convinced the marriage was over and beyond repair, regardless if other fault grounds existed. These are just common sense changes.

These changes would bring Mississippi closer in line with 48 other states with regards to divorce. While still not a true no-fault provision, this allows for the possibility of relief in most cases when it was previously not. What do you mean by that, you ask? Financial/divorce blackmail is legal in Mississippi under its current law.

Mississippi does NOT have a no-fault divorce option. Either you have fault grounds or an agreement to all issues between you and your spouse and if you have neither of those, you cannot get a divorce in Mississippi.

These changes, or something similar, are kicked around every year. Last year a blue-ribbon panel assembled by the legislature recommended changes and it didn’t happen. These are much needed and will actually help serve and protect families in Mississippi.

Matthew Thompson is a Family Law attorney in Mississippi and supports these changes. (601) 850-8000

Divorce, Irreconcilable differences, Marriage

Marriage is a Fundamental Right, Divorce is NOT.

3 Comments

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that you have a fundamental right to marry the person of your choosing. See Loving v. Virginia, Zablocki v. Redhail, and Obergefell v. Hodges.

This is especially true in Mississippi, but only with regard to the right to marry.

Mississippi is 1 of only 2 states in the US that does not recognize a married person’s absolute right to a divorce. South Dakota is the other state. This means that in Mississippi your spouse has to agree to the divorce and ALL of the terms of the divorce (irreconcilable differences) OR you have to have Fault Grounds against your spouse that you can prove to the satisfaction of a Judge.

If there is no agreement by the spouses OR you do not have OR cannot prove fault grounds you will just stay unhappily married.

So, what happens if your spouse will not agree and you cannot prove grounds? You stay married or you move away. Those are your options.

Matthew Thompson is a Family Law Attorney in Mississippi and can help you get out of being unhappily ever after.

Divorce, General Legal, Irreconcilable differences

60 Days = Divorce?

3 Comments

Sixty days and you are divorced is NOT the law in Mississippi.

§ 93-5-2 – Divorce on ground of irreconcilable differences

“(4) Complaints for divorce on the ground of irreconcilable differences must have been on file for sixty (60) days before being heard... the provisions of Section 93-5-17 to the contrary notwithstanding.”

60 days is NOT a deadline. It is a minimum, mandatory waiting period. It provides sufficient time for a cooling-off period and typically sufficient time to do all of the things necessary to complete the paperwork required in an Irreconcilable Differences divorce.

You are NOT automatically divorced on day 60 or 61. It means that AFTER 60 days the completed paperwork may be presented to the Chancellor for their review and approval.

Additionally, all of the paperwork does NOT have to be completed before you file and the Court will keep the file open for at least 12 months with no additional activity. This means at any point after the initial filing and 60 days, a divorce may be presented and finalized.

Matthew Thompson is a “No Fault” divorce attorney in Mississippi.

Divorce, Marriage, Opinion

Don’t Set Your Wedding Date before the Divorce is Final

Leave a comment

Yesterday’s blog regarding not getting re-married on the same day as your divorce inspired some additional excellent advice…

Do NOT set your Wedding Date before the divorce is FINAL.

$RH8GIPZ.jpg

Obviously, you cannot get re-married if you have a pending divorce. However, you should not set the date to marry your one, true beloved, counting on the divorce to go through from your demented, soon-to-be-ex on time, every time.

Divorce is not Amazon Prime. There is no guaranty that it will be there with next day shipping. In fact, routinely, something occurs to delay the process.  A signature page was left blank or someone forgot to notarize all of the documents. Sometimes the Court is not available on day 61 to enter it and sometimes people change their minds.

Matthew Thompson is a Mississippi divorce  attorney and advises you to wait until the divorce is final before setting the date for wedded bliss.

img_6390

 

(601) 850-8000            Matthew@bowtielawyer.ms

Divorce, General Legal, Opinion

When “NO FAULT” becomes “YO’ FAULT”

2 Comments

While Mississippi is technically not a true “No Fault” state, there are provisions for an Irreconcilable Differences divorce.  (commonly referred to as “No Fault”)

However, sometimes that agreement to a No Fault divorce doesn’t stick.  The parties, after getting over the initial shock of divorce, decide they will be adults and agree.  They think they can agree to the divorce and resolve their differences.   After all, they did manage to get along for most of 9 years, have two kids and bought a house.  What could go wrong?   They even searched online and looked at divorceyourself.com.

The No Fault agreement gets derailed when the Husband realizes he will have to pay 20% of his income towards child support, plus health insurance and alimony. He realizes it’s a lot of money. The Wife gets squirrely when she realizes that her half of the retirement account is consumed by balancing the equity in the house, or that the money she gets cannot be realized without significant tax consequences.

Parties to a divorce don’t realize child support is until 21 in Mississippi.  They don’t know the types of custody, or what each type means.  They agree to things that they cannot legally agree  to and fail to consider the consequences.

Finally, one party is convinced to see an attorney  and when they do they realize the consequences of what they were about to agree to and back out, the other side becomes angry and un-agrees too.  All of a sudden a simple divorce becomes complicated, expensive and adversarial.

Want to keep your situation from going from No Fault to Yo’ Fault? Have an assessment with an attorney that practices family law, keep the peace, and be smart.

Matthew Thompson is a family law attorney that can handle your divorce whether it’s your fault, their fault, or somebody else’s fault.

Follow the blog: BowTieLawyer    

img_6390

Divorce, General Legal

Being NOT Divorced Does Not a Marriage Make.

2 Comments

In Mississippi it can be ridiculously hard to get a divorce. Untying the knot can be quite the task…

Mississippi is NOT a true “No Fault” divorce state. Instead, MS requires the parties agree to the divorce and all the terms for an Irreconcilable Differences Divorce and absent that agreement you must have Fault Grounds, that can be proven.

If no agreement and no Fault Grounds, guess what? You cannot get divorced, but that does not mean you have a marriage!

Sure, legally you are married, but there is no requirement that you reside with your spouse and even if you commit an act which would entitle your spouse to a divorce it does not mean you can get the divorce- – only if they choose to seek fault grounds against you.

Time and again legislation has been proposed to eliminate this “divorce blackmail” chasm that is MS law. Time and again any compromise on divorce law has died on the vine under the auspices of “protecting families.”

Families are not being protected by laws which create legal blackmail situations. This change, by the way, if it ever happens is contrary to divorce lawyer’s self interests!  If there is a more reasonable process to get a divorce, divorce lawyers make less money.

Marriages are wonderful blessings, unless they are not.  It’s time for Mississippi laws to reflect that.

Matthew Thompson is a Divorce attorney in Mississippi and can help you untie the knot that became a “noose.”

Follow the blog: BowTieLawyer 

 

img_6390

Divorce, General Legal, Irreconcilable differences, Opinion

BlackMail is Legal in Divorce – The Law in Mississippi; Promoting Fights Since 1976

11 Comments

Mississippi law provides for parties to gain a divorce through one of two methods; 1) Agree to the Divorce and all issues, called an Irreconcilable Differences Divorce, or 2) pursue a Fault Based Divorce granted due to the other party’s misconduct. That’s it. Mississippi does not have a true NO FAULT divorce process.

So,what happens if you cannot agree and do not have grounds?

Divorce Blackmail

In the mid 1980’s this issue was pointed out by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

       “Prior to 1976 mature and responsible people who found their marriages irretrievably broken were offered by our law absurd choices…the complaining spouse had to choose between outright perjury and hoping that the chancellor would not strictly enforce the standards of proof legally required to establish one of the twelve grounds for divorce. The other choice…the ‘knock down, drag out’ fight to which the adversary system invariably leads…frequently creating more problems than are solved. Divorce had become a degrading, dehumanizing experience.”

Gallaspy v. Gallaspy, 459 So.2d 283 (MS 1984). Justice James Robertson, Concurring Opinion

       …further improvements in our law are needed. As enlightened and desirable as was the enactment of the Irreconcilable Differences Act in 1976, the job has not yet been completed…[the] Irreconcilable Differences Act–it facilitates, even encourages, financial blackmail…the chancery court has not authority to grant a divorce…unless the parties have reached an agreement…the spouse wanting the divorce or feeling that he or she must obtain a divorce is subject to financial blackmail. A party without fault grounds and no mutual agreement has only two options; (1) knuckle under and accept less than favorable financial terms or (2) go to court and try to obtain a contested divorce and an accompanying alimony and support award, when, as she and her lawyers surely must have known, she really did not have “grounds.” Id.

Justice Robertson actually proposed adding a 13th fault ground of Irreconcilable Differences, which if proven would allow the Court to award an ID divorce to one party, even over the objection of the other party and would allow the Court to rule upon the support issues.

However, Mississippi law actually perpetuates Blackmail.  If your spouse won’t agree and you don’t have fault grounds then you are STUCK.

There have been a number of bills proposed to end this divorce conundrum, but so far none has gained any traction.  Let me know your thoughts.  Do you support allowing for a true No Fault divorce, or an irreconcilable differences divorce after a period of separation?

Matthew Thompson is a Family Law attorney and is in favor of amending the Irreconcilable Differences divorce statute.

Follow the blog: BowTieLawyer 

img_6390