Divorce

Nashville Divorce Attorney Larry Hayes, Jr.

Divorce is one of life's most painful experiences, and your emotions will likely be on a roller coaster during the process. As your legal representative, Mr. Hayes has the experience to understand the difficulties that arise and the creativity to help you deal with those difficulties during this stressful time.

Issues that may be involved in a divorce in Tennessee include grounds for divorce, property division, alimony, child custody, and child support.

Grounds for Divorce

A divorce proceeding usually starts with grounds for divorce. Twenty years ago, if you didn't prove grounds for divorce, you couldn't get divorced in Tennessee. Grounds for divorce are still litigated and are important to some people, especially in cases of adultery.

The most common grounds for divorce is irreconcilable differences, which is Tennessee's version of a no-fault divorce. If the couple can't reach an agreement to file for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, one of the parties must allege one of the classic grounds, such as inappropriate marital conduct, adultery, bigamy, habitual drug use, or habitual drunkenness.

Property Division

Some assets are separate property, including those things belonging to a person before he or she gets married, or received as a gift or inherited during the marriage. For the most part, everything else will be considered marital property, which is subject to division between the parties. Everything else is marital property, which needs to be divided.

Many people who have significant assets such as businesses are often concerned about how those assets will be treated. If one spouse owns and runs the business, he or she will probably get to keep it. However, keeping a business often comes at a hefty price. The business will typically have to be valued using one or more approaches: according to its market value, the value of its assets, or the value of its income stream. In a typical situation, the three approaches are blended to arrive at a 'fair market value' and the spouse keeping the business is required to 'buy out' the other spouse's interest. in cash or other assets.

Alimony

Tennessee has four kinds of alimony:

• Alimony in futuro, which is traditional or permanent alimony. Alimony in futuro payments continue each month until they die or remarry.
• Rehabilitative alimony, in which a spouse receives payments until they can become self sufficient.
• Transitional alimony, which are payments designed to transition one spouse from being married to being single.
• Alimony in solido, which is alimony designed to make property division more fair.

In Tennessee, alimony is primarily based on the need of the person receiving it, the ability of
the other person to pay it, the length of marriage, and the fault involved in the grounds for divorce.

Child Custody

Child custody, called residential time in Tennessee, can be a highly contested issue in divorce. While the legislature has tried to move toward shared parenting, the courts know that shared parenting won't work if the parents don’t get along. For this reason, it's common for children to live with one parent and to visit the other parent every other weekend.

In Tennessee, child custody is determined by factors such as the age, mental health, education and job commitment of the parties, love and affection shown toward the child, and who has been primary care giver.

Child Support

Child support is how much money the non-custodial parent will have to pay the parent with custody. In Tennessee, child support is determined using a formula that considers such factors as the incomes of both parties and the amount of residential time the child spends with each parent.

More Information about Divorce

If you are currently going through a divorce or contemplating the first step, Mr. Hayes suggests reviewing the divorce guide entitled "Your Divorce, " which may help answer some of the many questions which often face a person when divorce is a possibility. You can also visit our Family Law Information Center.

CONSULTATION. Mr. Hayes invites you to contact him to set up an initial consultation or to answer any questions you may have in the area of Matrimonial and Family Law.