Kansas City Family Law Blog

Those who struggle with high blood pressure may face a myriad of challenges in daily life, whether they have difficulty in the workplace, or they are worried about some of the health risks associated with their condition. Moreover, there are certain periods in life when stress and high blood pressure can become especially problematic, even for those who may not have noticed these issues in the past. For example, when a marriage comes to an end, this can be a very difficult time for many reasons, and people may even run into these difficulties following a divorce due to family law matters such as child support and custody.

If you have high blood pressure, it is important to do everything you can to move through the family law issues you are facing as smoothly as possible, while minimizing the impact that these issues can have on your health. If you find that certain family law matters raise your blood pressure, it is important to approach them in a careful manner. Moreover, you may find that reviewing your options is helpful in this regard and it could benefit you to find healthy activities that can distract you from the hurdles you are dealing with, such as spending time with friends and loved ones or going on hikes.

18 is an important age for many in Jackson County. That often is the year that people graduate from high school and begin to face important decision related to their futures. Coincidentally, that also happens to be when parents paying child support believe that their children have reached the age of majority (which they then assume ends their child support obligations). Yet what happens when an 18-year-old decides to go to college? Given that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that as recently as 2017, 66.7 high school graduates in the U.S. were enrolled in college, this is likely a question that many divorced parents will have to face. 

The term "starving student" can often be applied literally. In most cases, teens and young adults attending colleges and universities are forced to focus a majority of their time and effort on their studies (thus limiting their opportunities to work to support themselves). This leaves them needing financial assistance to help pay for tuition, books and the costs of living. Because of this, Missouri state law allows for a child support obligation to be extended to accommodate college students. 

As a parent contemplating a Missouri divorce, one of your biggest concerns likely is how your children will react to your divorce and how the day-to-day loss of both of their parents will affect them. If you have not yet considered joint custody, you may well wish to do so.

Whether or not joint custody will work in your situation depends on how cooperatively you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse can work together in your children's best interests. If you both possess the requisite maturity, stability and determination to make joint custody work, however, your children can benefit in many ways.

The decision to get a divorce from your spouse is no doubt a difficult one, yet one that you typically will not arrive at without having your reasons. The question that many in Jackson County have asked us here at the Stange Law Firm is whether the state will justify those reasons. You are likely familiar with the term "grounds for divorce," which seemingly implies that you must have a valid reason to end your marriage. While that is true, that is not to say that only an egregious action by you or your ex-spouse will warrant a divorce. 

Missouri is a no-fault state when it comes to divorce, which means that neither you not your ex-spouse needs to be proven to be at fault in ending your marriage. Indeed, Section 452.320 of the state's Domestic Relations Code says that you and your spouse claiming (under oath) that your relationship is "irretrievably broken" is enough to qualify for a divorce. Yet what of your spouse disagrees to this? You can then attempt to assign fault to them by proving any of the following situations: 

• Your spouse has committed adultery or some other action which would make it difficult for anyone to expect you to continue to live with them
• Your spouse has abandoned you for at least six months
• You and your spouse have lived apart (consensually) for more than 12 consecutive months
• You and your spouse have lived apart (without mutual consent) for more than 24 consecutive months