Divorce

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Divorce
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Divorce

• The legal termination of marriage
• Dissolution of marriage
• Under English law, the only basis for divorce is
  the irretrievable breakdown of marriage
• The official request to a court to end a marriage
  is called divorce petition

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Fault divorce

• Until 1969, most states required grounds for
  divorce the guilty party and the innocent party
• In England, divorce would be granted only to the
  innocent party (petitioner) who could prove that
  the other party (respondent) committed a
  matrimonial offence
• Largely based on the church (ecclesiastical) law

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Matrimonial offences

• Adultery
• Intolerable Cruelty
• Desertion

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Uncontested divorce

• Both sides deliberately agreed that the wrongful
  conduct would be claimed even untruthfully
• Perjury lying under oath

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No-fault divorce

• After 1969
• Pioneered in the US by the State of California
  with the passage of the Family Law Act of 1969
• The Act signed by Governor R. Reagan on September
  4, 1969 and became valid on January 1, 1970
• Abolished the old common law for divorce

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Grounds for no-fault divorce

• Less specific reasons, such as incompatibility or
  irreconcilable differences
• The court decides how to divide communal property
  and who gets custody of the children
• If one of the spouses is financially dependent on
  the other, the court will usually order the other
  one to pay alimony (AmE) or maintenance (BrE)

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Elements of divorce

• Dissolving the marriage the formal legal
  process by which the marriage is ended
• Financial arrangements the process of dividing
  up the marital assets and agreeing on maintenance
• Childcare arrangements the process of deciding
  who the children of the marriage will live with
  (residency) and how much contact the non-resident
  parent will have

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Dissolving the marriage

• Petition for divorce
• Acknowledgement of service
• Obtain Decree Nisi
• Obtain Decree Absolute (after six weeks)

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Financial arrangements

• Apply for Ancillary Relief
• Financial disclosure
• Negotiation
• Obtain financial court order

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Childcare arrangements

• Agreement
• Application for residence and/or contact
• Investigation
• Residency court order

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Divorce today

• In the UK, 40 of marriages end in divorce
• In the USA almost 50
• Croatia current statistics show that every
  fifth marriages ends in divorce

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Vocabulary

• Dissolution of marriage razvrgnuce braka
• To file a divorce petition podnijeti zahtjev za
  razvod braka
• Petitioner tužitelj u brakorazvodnoj parnici
• Decree of divorce rješenje o rastavi braka
• No fault divorce, uncontested divorce
  sporazumni razvod braka

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Vocabulary II

• Decree Nisi privremeno rješenje o razvodu braka
• Decree Absolute pravomocna presuda o razvodu
  braka
• Ancillary relief financijska pomoc kod razvoda
• Financial disclosure iznošenje podataka o
  financijama

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Vocabulary exercise

• Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate
  word(s) from the list below
• grounds, separation, irretrievably, cohabitation,
  circumstances, respondent, family, relief
• An action for _________________ or divorce begins
  by filing a signed and sworn statement with the
  court indicating that sufficient grounds for
  __________ from marriage exist. After the
  complaint is filed, it is served on the
  _______________, who has time to file an answer
  to the complaint. The _____________ court can
  issue a decree for divorce under a number of
  _________________. The court will grant a divorce
  when the marriage is _____________ broken. The
  parties can also get a divorce when there is no
  reasonable likelihood that _________________ will
  resume and the court is satisfied it would not be
  harsh or contrary to the public interest to grant
  the divorce on the ____________ requested.

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Answer key

• An action for SEPARATION or divorce begins by
  filing a signed and sworn statement with the
  court indicating that sufficient grounds for
  RELIEF from marriage exist. After the complaint
  is filed, it is served on the RESPONDENT, who has
  time to file an answer to the complaint. The
  FAMILY court can issue a decree for divorce under
  a number of CIRCUMSTANCES. The court will grant a
  divorce when the marriage is IRRETRIEVABLY
  broken. The parties can also get a divorce when
  there is no reasonable likelihood that
  COHABITATION will resume and the court is
  satisfied it would not be harsh or contrary to
  the public interest to grant the divorce on the
  GROUNDS requested.