Divorce in Wisconsin

Residency Requirements and Grounds for Divorce

Residency Requirements and Grounds for Divorce

In order to file for divorce in Wisconsin either you or your spouse must be a resident of the state for at least six months and a resident of the county where the divorce is filed for at least 30 days.

Irretrievable breakdown of the marriage is the only grounds for divorce in Wisconsin. The irretrievable breakdown of the marriage may be shown by:

A joint petition by both spouses that requests a divorce
Living apart for 12 months prior to filing for divorce
The court finding an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage with no possible chance at reconciliation

The legal divorce process begins when one spouse files a petition for divorce with the circuit court. The divorce can be finalized without a trial if the parties are in agreement about property and debt division, child custody and child support matters.

After the divorce complaint has been filed, either spouse 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

Wisconsin is a "community property" state, which means that any property acquired during your marriage is treated as being owned by both you and your spouse. The courts try to divide the community property equally. A spouse's "separate property," which is property acquired before the marriage and property acquired by gift or inheritance, is awarded to that spouse.

The equal distribution may be altered by the court, without regard to marital misconduct, based on the following factors:

Length of the marriage
Property brought to the marriage by each spouse
One spouse having substantial separate property
Contribution of each spouse to the marriage
Age and health of the spouses
Contribution by one spouse to the education or training of the other spouse
Earning capacity of each spouse
Amount and duration of any maintenance payments
Pension benefits
Tax consequences to each spouse
Written agreement made before or during marriage regarding property distribution

The court may also divide any of the spouse's separate property in order to prevent a hardship on a spouse or on the children of the marriage.

It is important to collect all the information you can about all your property, including when you purchased it, approximately how much it is worth, and details such as account numbers, serial numbers and so forth. Collecting this information before you see a Wisconsin divorce lawyer can save you a lot of time and money.

Alimony

A court can order alimony to either party in Wisconsin regardless of marital misconduct. In deciding whether to award alimony, a court will generally consider such factors as:

Length of the marriage
Division of the property
Education level of each spouse
Age and health of the spouses
Contribution by one spouse to the education or training of the other spouse
Earning capacity of spouse seeking maintenance
Feasibility that spouse seeking maintenance can become self-supporting at a standard of living comparable to that which existed during marriage and length of time necessary to achieve that goal
Tax consequences to each spouse
Mutual agreement made before or during marriage regarding financial support

Child Custody and Visitation

Generally, the parents agree upon decisions about parenting and custody. If there is no agreement, the courts will make these decisions. In Wisconsin, the court may grant joint or sole child custody. There is a presumption in favor of joint custody, which is a form of custody of minor children that requires both parents to share the responsibilities of the children and for both parents to approve all major decisions related to the children.

In making a custody decision, the court will consider the best interests of the child and several factors, including the following:

Wishes of the parents
Wishes of the child
Interaction and interrelationship of the child with his or her parents, siblings and significant others
Amount and quality of time that each parent has spent with the child in the past
Child's adjustment to the home, school, religion and community
Age of the child and the child's developmental and educational needs at different ages
Whether the mental or physical health of a person living in a proposed custodial household negatively affects the child's intellectual, physical or emotional well-being
Need for regularly occurring and meaningful periods of physical placement
Availability of public or private child care services
Cooperation and communication between the parents
Whether each parent can support the other parent's relationship with the child
Whether there is evidence that a parent engaged in abuse
Whether either parent has or had a significant problem with alcohol or drug abuse

Generally parents are free to visit with their children at all times that are mutually agreed to by both parents. When the courts have not awarded the parents with the equal-time alternating residential care provision and the parents cannot agree to exactly when visitation will occur, the standard visitation schedule accepted most everywhere in the nation is:

Every other weekend
Four to six weeks during the summer
Alternating holidays

Child Support

In Wisconsin, either parent may be ordered to pay child support, health care expenses and health insurance coverage for the child. The courts consider the best interests of the child and the following factors:

Financial resources of the child
Standard of living the child would have enjoyed if the marriage had continued
Physical, mental, emotional and educational needs of the child
Parent's financial resources, income, earning power, needs and obligations
Age and health of the child
Best interest of the child
Maintenance received by either party
Desirability of the parent with custody to remain in the home as a full time parent
Cost of day care if the parent with custody works outside the home or the value of the child care provided by the parent
Tax consequences
Any joint custody arrangements

Child support may be modified at any time in which there has been a drastic change in circumstances. Some of the factors that a court will consider are:

Parent's income and earning capacities
Assets that are available for support
Employee benefits of each parent
Income of a new spouse or cohabitant
New family responsibilities of each spouse
Increase in the cost of living
Change in cost of rearing the child
Heath conditions of parents and child
Modification of custody arrangement

Generally, the child support obligation ends when the child reaches 18 years of age or the child graduates from high school, whichever occurs later. A child will also automatically be ineligible for child support if that child marries, is removed from disability status by a court order or the child dies.

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