J.Lo's Divorce & Joint Custody in South Carolina

Last week, many news outlets reported that Marc Anthony finally filed for divorce from Jennifer Lopez. The couple has been separated for 9 months.  His petition cites "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for the divorce (which is not a ground for divorce in South Carolina). He also requests joint custody of the couple's twins, Max and Emme.

Many people may read about J.Lo's divorce and think, "I want joint custody too!" But what works in California may not work in South Carolina.

South Carolina judges are unlikely to grant joint custody, unless the parents have reached an agreement that it is the best thing for their children. Why? Because joint custody requires the parents to work issues out amongst themselves, and if two parents cannot agree on what is best for their kids custody-wise, judges don't expect them to get along well enough to make joint custody work.

Additionally, if parents have equal time with the children, then children can feel like they don't have a true "home" because they change houses so frequently. At least one South Carolina Family Court judge is credited with asking a mother, "How would you like to move once a week?" before denying her request for joint custody.

In spite of these problems, there is legislation pending in South Carolina that would create a presumption in favor of joint custody.  This has the potential to dramatically change the way custody cases are decided in South Carolina.

Child custody is a rapidly evolving subject, which is why it is important that you contact a licensed South Carolina lawyer if you have questions about a custody case. Please don't rely on information about J.Lo's (or anyone else's!) divorce when making plans for your own.

Divorced Parents Can (Again) Be Ordered to Pay Children's College Expenses

In April 2010, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that unmarried or divorced parents could not be ordered to pay their children's college expenses.  This ruling, based on equal protection grounds, reversed about 30 years worth of law.  At that time, the Court ruled that ordering divorced parents to pay for college expenses when married parents could not be held to the same requirement resulted in different treatment that was unconstitutional.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court changed it's mind again.  In McLeod vs. Starnes, the justices determined that the 2010 decision improperly applied the test for determining whether the equal protection clause had been violated.  The Court went on to find that the state has an interest in ensuring young adults are educated, and therefore, there is a rational reason to order divorced parents to pay for their children's college expenses.

This ruling is important for any parent who is considering divorcing his or her spouse, and particularly for those with children in high school who are academically driven and expected to attend college.

What is an uncontested divorce?

A lot of people say that they are seeking a lawyer for an uncontested divorce. But what does that mean?

Quite simply, both spouses have to agree on the terms of the divorce. Why is that so hard? First of all, it's difficult to get two people who have decided they no longer want to be married to each other to agree on much of anything.  And on top of that people don't know all the things they have to agree on -- so often they think they have an agreement, but some detail comes up that they didn't discuss.

Here's a list of things that generally have to be agreed upon for a divorce to be uncontested:

Grounds for Divorce

First, either you or your spouse has to have grounds for seeking a divorce.  Learn more about those here.

Division of Assets and Debts

In a nutshell, who gets what? Who will get to keep the house? Who will keep each car? Who will be responsible for paying off the credit card debts? In some cases, a married couple has no assets and no debts; this is obviously very easy to divide.  Learn more about equitable distribution.

Alimony

Will one spouse receive alimony? How much? How often? Until when? Will one spouse continue paying for the other's health insurance or other miscellaneous expenses?  Learn more about alimony.

Custody & Visitation

Who will get to make decisions for the child? Who will the child spend the most time with? When will the other parent have visitation? Under what circumstances will the visitation schedule change? Custody can be a complicated issue - click here to learn more about it.

Child Support

Will one parent pay the other child support? How much? Will it be paid directly to the other parent, or through the Clerk of Court? Who will provide health insurance for the child? Who will pay the child's medical expenses that are not covered by insurance? Who will pay for the child's extracurricular activities?  Click here to learn how child support is usually calculated.

This may seem like a straightforward list of issues in an uncontested divorce. So why can it be so tricky? Because an uncontested divorce requires that BOTH spouses agree to the terms -- if one spouse stops agreeing, then it is no longer an "uncontested divorce."

Do you need more information about uncontested divorce in South Carolina?
Call (843) 488-2110 to set up an consultation or click here to Hire Megan.