At Joe Frick Law, we are the divorce lawyers at your side each step of the way. When going through the divorce process, we understand that there are so many decisions that have to be made right off the bat, including:

• Have I lived in Idaho for six weeks so that I can file
• My spouse committed domestic violence and how is that going to be handled
• What county will the divorce proceedings be in
• Is Idaho a community property state and will the marital assets divided
• Is this a no fault divorce or not
• Will I need legal representation from a divorce attorney
• Will criminal law be involved and will I need a criminal defense attorney as well
• Where and how do I file the divorce petition
• Will I have to pay child support
• What all legal issues will be involved
• A personal injury case is ongoing, how will that be handled
• Do attorneys offer a free consultation
• How long will the entire process last
• What happens if we can't agree on child custody
• How much is a divorce attorney going to cost

As we have helped hundreds and hundreds of individuals go through the process, we understand what it takes to get the best outcome.

Divorce Procedures

When you go before the family court, you will have to follow all of the rules through the divorce process. This include filing the petition for divorce even in uncontested divorces. It also includes meeting all the applicable laws. For example, you cannot get a divorce in Idaho unless you have lived here for at least six weeks.

Consequences

If you fail to follow the rules in family court, it could cost you dearly in your family law case. When you do not follow all the rules, the court could reject the documents you are trying to file, the judge could punish you and make you pay the other spouses' attorney fees, not allow you to introduce important evidence, or kick your case out entirely and give the other party a default judgment.

The divorce process is complicated which is why you should not do it alone. Make sure you at least get a free consultation with a divorce lawyer to ensure you get the best possible outcome.

Uncontested divorce

This can happen if your soon-to-be former spouse agrees on all of the issues regarding the divorce. Attorneys generally can draft all the paperwork and ensure that your former spouse is not taking advantage of you in any way. Divorce sometimes brings the worst out in people and your meridian divorce lawyer should identify those issues.

Again, everything has to be agreed on in the divorce for an uncontested divorce to be accomplished including child custody, child support, spousal maintenance, and division of assets.

Division of Assets

Idaho is a community property state. What that means is the judge in your family law case will divide the property (taking into account debt as well) as equally between the spouses as possible. There are some exceptions to this rule though.

Exceptions to the 50/50 rule

There are several exceptions to the 50/50 rule. But, you and your divorce attorney have to show some compelling evidence to get the judge in the case to go against it.

Spouse committed waste

If one of the spouses wasted a bunch of money during the marriage on frivolous items such as gambling, his mistress or her boyfriend, extremely bad investments when he or she should have known better, etc. However, the burden to prove this is on the one alleging that the other committed waste.

Factors the court will look at when considering waste

• Whether the expense benefited the marriage or was made for a purpose entirely unrelated to the marriage;
• the timing of the expense;
• whether the expenditure was excessive or just a small purchase, and
• whether the spouse that did the spending intended to hide, deplete or divert a marital asset.

When seeking this reimbursement, you face an uphill battle which is why it is so important to consult a divorce lawyer.

Other cases

There are a number of other family law issues that come up where one party can argue that they should get an unequal division of marital property. However, the court still must look at the Idaho family law when considering the arguments.

Unequal division Factors

The court will review the following factors every time it is considering giving one spouse more of the marital property or more of the debts incurred during the marriage:

• Duration of the marriage;
• Any antenuptial agreement of the parties; provided, however, that the court shall have no authority to amend or rescind any such agreement;
• The age, health, occupation, amount and source of income, vocational skills, employability, and liabilities of each spouse;

The needs of each spouse;

Whether the apportionment is in lieu of or in addition to maintenance;

The present and potential earning capability of each party; and

• Retirement benefits, including, but not limited to, social security, civil service, military and railroad retirement benefits

Your divorce lawyer will be able to analyze all of the factors in your case and see if you would be able to make a claim for more of the marital assets or less of the debt. However, you need to understand that property division is solely decided by the judge in family law cases.

Spousal Maintenance (alimony)

Idaho does award spousal maintenance to one of the spouses when it is warranted. In order for the court to order one party to pay alimony, you have to show the court that you deserve it.

The test

Idaho employs a two-part test when it is deciding whether one spouse has to pay alimony. First, the court will look at whether the provide for his or her resaonable monthly living expenses through employment.

When looking at this test, make sure you are looking at reasonable monthly bills. The court will not just accept the list of expenses that you give it. It will not count unreasonable, frivilous, or bills that are excessive.

If the party can pay their bills after the divorce is over with his or her job, the test is over and he or she will not be awarded spousal support.

It does not end there though.

If one party fails the first test, the court will look at the spouse's property as well including what property they are being awarded during the contested divorce including the marital home. If the party has enough property to sell and pay their bills, then they will not be awarded alimony

How much and How long

Once the person can show that they are entitled to spousal support during the divorce proceeding, the court will review the following factors to determine how much that person should get:

Alimony factors:

• The financial resources of the spouse seeking maintenance, including the marital property apportioned to said spouse, and said spouse’s ability to meet his or her needs independently;
• The time necessary to acquire sufficient education and training to enable the spouse seeking maintenance to find employment;
• The duration of the marriage;
• The age and the physical and emotional condition of the spouse seeking maintenance;
• The ability of the spouse from whom maintenance is sought to meet his or her needs while meeting those of the spouse seeking maintenance;
• The tax consequences to each spouse;
• The fault of either party.

After reviewing those factors during the contested divorce proceedings, the judge will decide how much the person getting alimony should get and for how long.

Child Custody

A Meridian Divorce Attorney should be able walk you through all the child custody issues in your case including:

• Whether you are going to agree to share custody
• What is in the best interests of the minor children and your family
• During the Idaho divorce case has there been any domestic violence or habitual intemperance to not allow the other parent to see the children and is that in the best interest
• How much child support should be paid based on the child custody agreement
• Is the other spouse's divorce lawyer doing anything improper and what should be done about that
• Should you get a meridian divorce lawyer or will an attorney from nearby cities be better
• Once you are divorced should you keep the name of your former spouse
• Will future child custody cases be required
• Should you include any provisions regarding Idaho college
• Is there a chance that the other parent will commit willful neglect
• Will family law services need to get involved during the case if there is domestic violence
• Will a divorce mediation be helpful in during case, will a meridian divorce lawyer be involved during that process, or will the mediation services just be between the parents
• Will property division have anything to do with child custody of the minor children

Divorce attorneys generally will offer a free consultation to go over these issues and how they will affect your Idaho divorce and your family.

Child support

Divorce lawyers have to follow the Idaho Child Support Guidelines when they are calculating child support whether that is during a divorce, legal separation, uncontested divorce, or child custody modification case.

Child support factors

When using the guidelines, the main factors that will come into play are the income of the parties, how much custody each party has, and how many minor children there are.There are other factors that come into play, but those are the main ones.

Free Consultation in Meridian ID with Our Family Law Firm

In order to determine if we are the right fit for you and that you are the right fit for our law firm, we offer free consultations with our client engagement specialist. We do not take each case that comes in the door and we regularly reject clients that are not a match. So, get your free consultation today because we also only take a certain number of cases per month to ensure our clients receive excellent service.