Kansas City Family Law Blog

Family law experts in Jackson County will often recommend that you and your spouse enter into a prenuptial agreement prior to your marriage in order to protect each of your existing financial interests should your marriage end. Yet even the experts may agree that not every marriage may need a prenup. Neither of you may have brought significant assets into your marriage, or even if you did, you may have decided that you ultimately did not care how they might be divided should you separate (which likely seemed to be an impossibility at the time). 

Now, for whatever reason, you may be questioning that decision. If so, you should know that postnuptial agreement can be just as good at protecting your assets from being divided or lost in a divorce settlement. A cynic might say that your wanting a postnuptial agreement is a sure sign of you believing that your marriage is already on its way to failing. Yet there are indeed circumstances where considering postnuptial agreement might be the best option for you and your spouse. 

Oftentimes, married parents in Jackson County might have difficulties supporting themselves and their children. One can only imagine how much more difficult such as task becomes if and when such a couple chooses to divorce. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that as recently as 2015, over $33.7 billion was owed in child support. With such a large sum of money at stake (along with the well-being of those that are owed it), it should come as little surprise that family courts take the issue of child support enforcement so seriously. 

One effective method in resolving child support arrears has been to restrict the privileges of those that owe them. Many states will even suspend the driver's licenses of obligor parents in such situations; Missouri is among them. Per Section 454.1003 of the state's Revised Statutes, one subject to a child support obligation can have his or her driver's license suspended in any of the following situations: 

• He or she owes an amount in child support arrears equaling either the sum of three months worth of payments or $2500
• He or she fails to comply with a subpoena from the court concerning the modification of an existing child support order
• He or she fails to comply with a subpoena from the court concerning the establishment of paternity
• He or she fails to comply with a subpoena from the court over matters related to genetic testing

After your divorce in Jackson County becomes final, you may feel a certain sense of finality. That feeling, however, may be fleeting, as you quickly realize just how much your now ex-spouse was involved in the many different facets of your life. Thus begins the process of removing him or her from the many pertinent personal records he or she might still be found on. Many clients come to us here at the Stange Law Firm asking for assistance in doing this, and one of the documents we remind them to revisit is their wills. The reason for this reminder is that many may often forget to do it. 

If you have created a will in which you now ex-spouse was named as a beneficiary, what happens if you never get around to amending it? Section 461.051 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri states that the moment your divorce is finalized, any provisions naming him or her as a beneficiary are automatically revoked. This law does not apply, however, if you stipulated in the document that said provisions were irrevocable. It is for this reason that you are encouraged to review your will after your divorce even with the aforementioned law in place. 

Very often, the rewarding if child support payments in a divorce case in Jackson Count is often viewed as a punitive action. In reality, it is not designed to be so. Ex-spouses bickering over the amount of child support required may fail to realize that those amounts are determined by the court and are designed to not impose any unfair financial burdens on either party involved (nor to reward any of those involved for perceived slights they may have suffered). However, the idea of child support as punishment might persist due to the way that people present it. 

A recent case involving a music producer and the mother of his son illustrates this point. The boy's mother approached the father threatening to reveal information about him unless he agreed to increase his child support payments. The man was hesitant to do so for fear that the extra was not meant to benefit his son, but rather the many other children and grandchildren who were also living with the mother. Eventually, the two met through mediation proceedings and were able to come to a compomise that was endorsed by the court.