Newark OH Divorce Law Blog

Stars like Halle Berry and Charlie Sheen pay huge sums in child support; however, is this money, and similar sums paid by Ohio residents, going to the kids or to help support the custodial parents? Recently, Sheen's estranged wife, Brooke Mueller, reentered rehab as part of her long struggle with substance abuse. She has recently attempted to remove custody of her children from Denise Richards, Sheen's first wife, who had been caring for them. Sheen's lawyers claim that this is because the $55,000 a month Sheen pays in child support is Mueller's lone income source.

Many experts wonder whether current laws really benefit children or whether they instead provide opportunities for unscrupulous parents. The current laws tend to favor the rich over the poor. While the amounts paid in celebrity cases may seem large, they often have little impact on the quality of life of the very wealthy. However, the sums paid by people earning regular salaries often cause great harm.

Some Ohio residents may wonder what assets are protected from a spouse during a divorce proceeding. It is well known that a judge will typically divide marital assets more or less equally between the spouses. However, there are some exceptions.

Every state has its own laws for property division during divorce. In a community property state, all property acquire during the marriage, by either spouse, is considered community property and split exactly in half. The spouses can agree to exclude certain income from community property. Inherited funds are the separate property of the spouse that inherited them, as is any asset acquired before the marriage.

Many people are under the mistaken belief that only wealthy couples need prenuptial agreements or that getting an agreement is assuming that a marriage will not work out. On the contrary, there are reasons to get a prenuptial agreement that could benefit Ohio couples of all income levels.

A prenuptial agreement is a valuable insurance policy for spouses who start businesses immediately before a marriage or who anticipate taking over a family business later. Having a written agreement regarding who is entitled to income in those situations can be very valuable later. A prenuptial agreement is also helpful in a situation where a spouse reaches his or her full earning potential after the marriage begins. Spouses who receive large income increases or acquire substantial assets during the marriage may prefer to agree in advance which spouse will get to keep those assets during property division. Similarly, spouses can negotiate so that each spouse is solely responsible for debts they incur during the marriage. Otherwise, the default is that the debts will be split, which may turn out not to be fair to the spouse who doesn't incur debt. 

Most Millennials in Pataskala have parents or grandparents who never would have thought of buying a home before getting married, but it appears that there are a growing number of younger men and women who are choosing to sign a mortgage before they sign a marriage certificate. It appears that buying a home is a way to show commitment and maturity and is something Ohio couples may do to strengthen their relationship before they actually get married.

Unfortunately for some of those couples, their marriages will not last. Since property division is based on marital income and that many couples previously waited to purchase a home until after they were married, it is possible that this could have an impact on how homes are dealt with under Ohio's equitable division law. When a couple divorces, their property is divided equitably, which requires a complex analysis of what is included within a marital estate and other factors that dictate what would be a fair way to divide property. If a home is purchased prior to marriage, however, there may be some question as to whether it is marital property or an individual's. If it belongs to an individual, it cannot be divided with the rest of the marital property.