Child Support
Residency Requirements and Grounds for Divorce
Either spouse must be a Maine resident for at least six months before filing for a divorce. A divorce case begins when one spouse files a complaint with the proper court. You can file your case in the county where you or your spouse live. There is a 60-day waiting period after your spouse is served with the divorce papers before the court will act on your divorce.
Grounds for divorce in Maine are:
- Irreconcilable marital differences
- Adultery
- Impotence
- Extreme cruelty
- Desertion for more than three consecutive years
- Gross habits of intoxication from the use of liquor or drugs
- Cruel and abusive treatment
- Mental illness requiring confinement in a mental institution for at least seven consecutive years prior filing your case
The most common ground is irreconcilable marital differences because proving fault by one spouse doesn't impact the key issues in your divorce such as alimony or child support or custody.
Dividing the Property
Maine is an equitable distribution state, meaning your marital property is divided in a fair manner upon divorce. Factors in property division include:
- Contribution of each spouse in acquiring marital property, including homemaking
- Value of separate property
- Economic circumstances of each spouse when the property division goes into effect, including whether custodial parent receives family home or the right to live there
Each spouse keeps their separate property; separate property includes:
- Assets you had before you married
- Income from separate property
- Property inherited from your family
Separate property should be kept apart, and not mixed or "commingled" with marital property. Be prepared with information on your property, including when you purchased it, an estimate of value, and details such as account numbers, serial numbers and so forth. You'll be ready to meet with a Maine divorce lawyer and it can save you a lot of time and money.
Alimony
Alimony or spousal support is support paid by one spouse to the other, and the court may award it to either spouse. There are several support types: general, transitional, reimbursement, nominal or interim. Each serves a specific need. For example, general support gives help to a spouse with much less income than the other spouse. Transitional support allows a spouse to prepare or work towards self-support. Reimbursement support allows for a fair result in the overall winding down of the couple's finances.
Factors in deciding support issues include:
- Marriage length
- Ability of each spouse to pay
- Spouses' ages
- Employment history and potential of each spouse
- Income history and potential of each spouse
- Education and training of each spouse
- Provisions for retirement and health insurance benefits of each spouse
- Tax consequences of property division and support award
- Health and disabilities of each spouse
- Contribution of either party as homemaker, and to one another's education and career
- Standard of living of the spouses during the marriage
- Whether the recipient spouse will be capable of self-support within a reasonable period
- Effect of income from other sources
Spousal support can be modified if justice requires it, unless the support order states it isn't subject to modification. Spousal support automatically ends when either of the parties dies or upon the recipient's remarriage, unless the order states otherwise.
Child Custody and Visitation
Maine now uses the term parental rights and responsibilities instead of child custody. Parental rights and responsibilities include such things as where the child will live, educational issues, religious upbringing, medical care and travel boundaries. The court bases its decision on the best interest of the child. Weight is given to preferences of teenage children.
If the parents agree to an award of shared parental rights and responsibilities, the court will make that award unless there is substantial evidence against it. If the parents do not have an agreement, the court may order shared or sole parental rights and responsibilities based on the best interest of the child.
An award of shared parental rights and responsibilities may include either an allocation of the child's primary residential care to one parent and rights of parent-child contact (visitation) to the other parent, or a sharing of the child's primary residential care by both parents. The court may not prefer one parent over the other in determining parental rights and responsibilities because of the parent's gender or the child's age or gender.
Child Support
In Maine, child support is set by the court and based on guidelines. Child support may be made payable weekly, monthly or quarterly. Either spouse may show why the application of the guidelines would be unfair in their situation. Child support ends at age 18 unless the child has not graduated from high school. In that case, it will end then the child graduates or reaches 19, whichever comes first. A child support order may be modified if there has been a substantial change in circumstances, such as a change in income.