Child Support
Residency Requirements and Grounds for Divorce
Either you or your spouse must be a North Carolina resident for six months before filing for divorce.
Either spouse can get a divorce simply by stating in divorce papers that the spouses have been separated - meaning they have lived separate and apart without cohabitation - for one year. The other recognized ground for a divorce in North Carolina is incurable insanity or mental illness lasting three years.
A divorce case begins when one spouse files a "Complaint for Divorce" with the Superior Court or the District Court. The divorce papers are served on the other spouse, who has time to respond. If you and your spouse agree on key issues such as property and debt division, and child custody and support, your divorce may be finalized without a trial. If you can't agree, the court schedules a hearing on the issues.
Once the complaint is filed, either party can request temporary assistance from the court in the form of temporary custody and child support orders, and orders to determine who pays community debts on a temporary basis.
Dividing the Property
All assets and debts acquired before and after your marriage - called "marital property" and "divisible property" is divided equitably in a divorce. This means the court makes a fair, but not always equal, division.
You and your spouse each keep your separate property. Separate property includes:
- Property you acquired before marriage
- Gifts and inheritances
- Any property acquired in exchange for separate property
- Any increase in the value of separate property
In deciding how to divide the property owned by a divorcing couple, the court will make an equal division by using the net value of the marital property and the net value of the divisible property unless it finds that an equal division is not fair. Court consider these factors in deciding property division issues:
- The income, property and debts of each party
- Prior support obligations
- Marriage length
- The age and physical and mental health of the parties
- Whether the custodial parent should keep the family home
- Expected pension or retirement payments that aren't marital property
- The contributions of each spouse in acquiring property, including homemaking efforts
- Direct contributions to a value increase in separate property
- Whether property is liquid
- Tax consequences
- Each spouse's conduct to preserve or waste 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 North Carolina divorce lawyer and it can save you a lot of time and money.
Alimony
A court can order alimony at its discretion, depending on the facts of your case. Factors in awarding alimony are:
- Marital misconduct
- The relative earnings and earning capacities of the spouses
- Sources of income
- The ages and physical, mental and emotional conditions of the spouses
- Marriage length
- The relative education of the spouses and the time need to gain education or training to enable a spouse to find a suitable job
- The relative assets and liabilities of the spouses
- Homemaking contributions
- Relative needs of the spouses
- Tax consequences
A court can order temporary alimony while the divorce is pending. Most alimony is ordered for a specific length of time. Once ordered, it can be modified only upon a showing of a "substantial change in circumstances."
Child Custody and Visitation
In North Carolina, the court will make child custody decisions based on what is in the "best interest" of the child if the parents don't agree. In deciding how much time each parent should spend with the child, courts look at many factors, including:
- Domestic violence between the parties
- The safety of the child and the safety of either party from domestic violence
- Child's wishes, if the child is old enough
The court will presume that both parents should have maximum involvement regarding the physical, mental, moral and emotional well-being of the child.
A non-custodial parent is usually awarded visitation rights. Visitation can include electronic methods, such as e-mail, instant messaging, phone and other internet-based methods.
After the custody order is signed by the judge and filed with the court clerk, both parents are bound by it. If you're denied court-ordered access to your child, you can seek help from the court. The judge may decide to modify the visitation order, order makeup visitation for the time missed or order counseling or mediation.
Child Support
In North Carolina, child support is based on state child support guidelines. The guidelines factor in the combined gross income of the parents and the number of children supported. The guidelines amount is presumed to be correct. A court can deviate from the guidelines if the amount would be unfair or unjust, and must give its reasons in writing.
A North Carolina child support order can be modified if there has been a substantial change in the income or financial status of either party or the needs of the children.
Questions for Your Attorney