¶ … Family Law, Part Two
The following is an overview of the various topics covered in Family Law, Part Two. The pertinent areas of discussion will be defined, explained, described, compared and contrasted in order to illustrate the information garnered from this segment of Family Law. Included is a description of the impact of the Child Support Enforcement and Establishment of Paternity Act of 1974 on state requirements in the area of child support. Also offered, in a section on spousal support, is a comparison and contrast of permanent alimony, lump-sum support, and rehabilitative support. Then, an explanation is presented regarding the significance of timing in the classification of property in the division of marital property. Additionally, a description of how the 1968 case of Levy vs. Louisiana significantly changed the legal status of children of unwed parents. Finally, the pros and cons of using a sperm bank for artificial insemination as opposed to using a known donor are described.
It is interesting to note that historically, the federal government has been loath to intercede in the area of family law. Money, however, moves mountains and federal government attitudes. To better understand the impact the Child Support Enforcement and Establishment of Paternity Act of 1974 on state requirements in the area of child support, it helps to understand the impetus behind the legislation. The Aid for Dependent Child (AFDC) program had been implemented under the Social Security Act of 1935, as a partnership between federal and state governments to provide aid to families in financial straights (CSEA, 2009). As time progressed, there was growing concern that the number of families requiring assistance from AFDC was increasing at an alarming rate, due in part, to the failure of parents to provide for their own children (CSEA, 2009). In order to curtail the growing expense related to absentee parents and AFDC, the federal government enacted the aforementioned child support legislation (Morgan, 2002). 'This piece of legislation imposed statutory mandates upon the states, changing the character of family law regarding most matters affecting the parent-child relationship' (Morgan, 2002). In order to comply (and receive federally funded AFDC), states now had to establish means of locating absent parents, establish paternity, and secure support from the absent parent (Morgan, 2002). Simply stated, the Federal government had to devise a means to keep the AFDC payments from becoming astronomical, and what better way than to have the person/persons responsible for children's birth, also maintain responsibility for their upbringing.
In Family Law, there is a heavy emphasis on laws pertaining to the dissolution of the family. Because of the need for courts to intercede in family dissolutions (divorces), a vast vocabulary surrounding divorce issues, specifically financial support issues, has arisen to define specific options. When one spouse is ordered by a court to make monetary payments to another spouse due to a divorce, it is called alimony. Alimony comes in different forms, and its form is generally determined by what is just and fair in the eyes of the court. The three types of spousal support addressed here are permanent alimony, rehabilitative alimony, and lump-sum support.
Permanent alimony is awarded after a divorce and it consists of regular payments (usually monthly) that must be paid to one spouse by the other (Wechsler, 2012). These payments are subject to change depending on financial circumstances, and are also subject to termination, especially upon death of one of the spouses or the remarriage of the spouse receiving the payments (Wechsler, 2012).
Unlike permanent alimony, rehabilitative alimony is not intended to be a permanent situation. It is "awarded for a specific and limited period of time to enable the needy spouse to obtain sufficient education or training to become financially independent" (Wechsler, 2012). In some circumstances, it is 'awarded for a specific reason and it ends when the original designated time frame has elapsed and it is not affected by remarriage' (Wechsler, 2102).
When circumstances warrant it and the paying spouse has the means, the alimony may be paid in a form called lump-sum support (aka "alimony in gross") (Wechsler, 2012). This is usually a one time payment intended to equitably divide assets and definitively settle the matter (Wechsler, 2012). Generally, the lump-sum support option is ordered when the couple divorcing is of advanced age, has the means to divide assets in a one time payment, and/or there is reason to believe that prolonged payments...
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