Effect of Litigating Child Custody and Support

• Thanks to the existence of presumptive guidelines, child support tends to be one of the first issues resolved between a separating couple. State guidelines take a formulaic approach to setting child support that makes this issue relatively easy to determine in comparison with other disputes the parties might have. Child custody, however, can delay the resolution of spousal support and property division claims. A couple will likely be the most concerned with getting custody resolved first and worry about spousal support and property division later. As custody can be as intense as any other part of the case, it can take a year or more to litigate in its entirety. This delays the giving of attention to other issues.
  
  

Litigating Alimony

• State laws on temporary and permanent alimony usually turn on the standard of living to which the parties became accustomed during marriage, their current incomes and expenses and their need to receive and ability to pay support. Courts will usually also consider marital fault, including adultery, in deciding whether to award alimony. The necessity of proving certain factors to obtain alimony and of proving a living standard and the existence of expenses makes it necessary to engage in extensive discovery prior to an alimony trial. Answering interrogatories, analyzing documents obtained pursuant to subpoena and taking depositions can push an alimony trial well beyond the one year anniversary of separation, especially for long marriages.
  
  

Litigating Equitable Distribution or Community Property

• Claims for equitable distribution (ED) and community property (CP) can take years to litigate, especially with long marriages or couples with significant assets. Attorneys may have to track down thousands of pages of financial documents that may be difficult to locate and then have these reviewed by an accountant or other expert witness. The attorneys may also have to pore over these documents to trace their client's separate property or to find money hidden by the other side. Only when an accurate picture of the marital estate exists can the case proceed. In property division, timeliness takes a back seat to accuracy.
  
  

Tangential Influences

• All other things being equal, the financial part of a case can drag on for years depending on the condition of the local family court system where the case is to be tried. Parties sometimes have to "get in line" to get their cases heard, finding themselves bumped off the docket several times before finally landing a trial. Intervening illnesses of key personnel and inclement weather can also influence the timing of a trial.