Court Procedures

ANSWER: Several weeks to over a year. The amount of time it takes varies with the court's work load and how long it takes to gather information and get a resolution, whether by agreement or trial. The fastest way to get divorced is to have all issues worked out before you file anything with the Court.

ANSWER: Yes. No court appearances are required to approve the dissolution if you are using the summary dissolution procedure (no kids, property limit, no maintenance) or are proceeding by administrative review. Both of these procedures require written settlement agreements signed by both parties. If you have children, the agreement will also need to be signed by an attorney for each party.

ANSWER: Yes. The court will expect you to use the proper forms and follow court rules.

Costs

ANSWER: The range is from zero to tens of thousands of dollars. If you are low income, you may apply to the court for waiver of the filing fee and the fee for serving legal papers by filing the paperwork to proceed in forma pauperis. Otherwise the filing fee in most counties is $245 for a Petitioner and $245 for a Respondent. The filing fee for motions is $55 for each side of the case; $25 if the motion is limited to child support issues.

The biggest variable in the cost of a dissolution is the amount of attorney time that you use. Cases that settle early on with little attorney time cost substantially less than cases that go to trial after many court appearances.

Temporary Issues and Timing

ANSWER: Probably not. A legal separation is a separate type of lawsuit which is similar to a marital dissolution in that it divides property, makes a custody decision, and awards support and maintenance. However, when a legal separation is granted, the two of you are still married.

A temporary order is part of a divorce lawsuit and sets out how things will be arranged on a temporary basis until the case is finally resolved. Some people can reach informal agreements on all important temporary issues and will follow through on those agreements.

If that isn't the situation for you, you may want the court to make legally binding temporary orders on issues such as possession of the homestead, custody, child support, maintenance, division of debts, and so on.

ANSWER: Yes. If you start the divorce, you control the point in time when the court has the power to make binding orders over the two of you. This may be important if you need a temporary order.

Custody and Visitation

ANSWER: The Court uses the concept of the best interests of the child to determine custody rather than the concept of fairness. It has an obligation to order a custody and visitation arrangement that allows both parents to have a continuing relationship with their children. See Minn. Stat. Sec. 518.17, 518.175.

ANSWER: Good. All parents are presumed to be entitled to joint legal custody unless there has been domestic abuse between the two of them or one parent shows some other specific reason why joint legal custody won't work. Legal custody is the authority to make important decisions for a child.

ANSWER: A parent with sole physical custody is entitled to full guideline child support and is also entitled to a presumption that it is in the child's best interests to move out of state with that parent. A parent with joint physical custody is entitled to Valento support (discussed below) or some other amount that may be less than guideline support and is not entitled to any presumption that he/she can move away from Minnesota with the child.

Minnesota statutes also allow for the option of using your own terms to describe how you will parent your children after a dissolution or custody decision. If you are interested in this option, you and the other parent will work out a detailed Parenting Plan which may include financial support for the child determined in a reasonable way by the two of you. See Minn. Stat. Sec. 518.1705.

ANSWER: There is no set age. In general, the older the child, the more weight the court will give the child's preference. For older teens, the court will give the child's preference considerable weight. In any custody case -- no matter what the age of the child -- the child's preference is only one of at least 13 different factors that the Court is required to consider in making the custody decision. See Minn. Stat. Sec. 518.17.

Paternity

ANSWER: No. However, once you have agreed that you are the father in a legally binding way, it is difficult to change. Common ways of agreeing that you are the father are signing a Recognition of Parentage (which is sometimes referred to as a ROPE and is usually signed at the hospital) or admitting that you are the father in a court proceeding that results in a formal order on paternity. A ROPE or an adjudication of paternity gives you the right to seek custody or visitation with the child; it also makes you financially responsible for the child.

Child Support

ANSWER: The child support guidelines are a percentage applied to your net income to determine your child support. The percentage varies with your level of net income as well as with the number of children you have. Net income is calculated according to a formula in the statute and may be different from your take home pay. The guidelines are applied when one parent has sole physical custody. In rare instances, the court deviates downward or upward from the guidelines. See Minn. Stat. Sec. 518.551.

The guidelines are also frequently used when parties have joint physical custody. In that situation, one parent pays guideline support for the percentage of time the other parent has the children and vice versa, and the two support obligations are offset against each other. This is called the Valento formula. Parents with joint physical custody sometimes devise other ways to share the children's expenses.

ANSWER: You can ask for the court to order a contribution to childcare expenses, if the childcare is incurred for purposes of employment or education. Other elements of child support that the court can order are medical support (providing medical insurance, contributing to uninsured expenses), and security for child support. Any orders for these things will be in addition to guideline child support.

Spousal Maintenance

ANSWER: In some cases, yes. When one spouse is required to contribute to the other spouse's income, the court makes an award of spousal maintenance (formerly this was called alimony). Maintenance is awarded when one spouse cannot meet his/her own needs and the other has the ability to pay. It is awarded in amounts and for periods of time based on factors, such as the length of the marriage, the standard of living during the marriage, and the reason why the requesting spouse cannot be self-supporting. Minn. Stat. Sec. 518.552.

Property and Debts

ANSWER: No. If you acquired those assets during the marriage, they are considered marital property that is subject to a just and equitable division. See Minn. Stat. Sec. 518.58. In the vast majority of cases, the court divides the value of marital property 50/50.

There is one exception to the rule that assets acquired during the marriage are marital property. Assets that meet the definition of nonmarital property would most likely be returned to you. See Minn. Stat. Sec. 518.54(5)

Some examples of nonmarital property are: assets owned by you prior to the marriage; assets acquired using an inheritance that was made to you and you alone; gifts made to you and you alone; and proceeds from lawsuits representing permanent personal injury to you. These are only some examples of nonmarital property.

In very exceptional cases, the court can award up to 50 per cent of your nonmarital property to your spouse.

ANSWER: They get divided along with the property in a just and equitable manner. Unlike the prevailing trend to divide marital property 50/50, there are more variations on how debts are split.