Northern Kentucky Family Law Blog

When spouses choose to divorce in Kentucky, the decision over how to handle the marital home can be complicated. Depending on the amount of equity at stake, the family home may be the most significant jointly held asset. If the house is not sold, one spouse will generally walk away from the divorce in possession of the property. However, ownership comes with significant financial costs.

Dealing with the mortgage can be a major concern. If the original joint mortgage is kept, both spouses remain fully responsible for the debt. However, any default can be seriously damaging to both parties' credit, so many spouses want to end this entanglement when the divorce is completed. In other cases, the joint mortgage is refinanced into one spouse's name. This can present some challenges, because one spouse will need to show the income and capacity to pay for the entire house on their own credit alone. In other cases, one spouse can assume the original mortgage if the original loan documents allow for loan assumption.

Some people in Kentucky may assume that in a custody battle between parents, the mother always gets preference over the father. However, research conducted by a professor from the George Washington University Law School suggests that this is not the case. The professor examined 2,000 child custody cases that involved parental alienation, child abuse and domestic violence. The professor found that a mother's claim of child abuse was never substantiated in court if the father's claim of parental alienation was accepted.

Furthermore, if the mother says that sexual abuse has occurred and the father says that there has been parental alienation, courts substantiate sexual abuse in just 1 out of 51 cases. This happens even though parental alienation remains a controversial concept. A situation in which a parent tries to turn a child against the other parent, it is often treated as a widespread problem in some courts even though research from the psychiatrist who advanced it has never been recognized by certain bodies, such as the American Medical Association.

In 2010, roughly a quarter of all those who were divorced in the United States were over the age of 50. In 1990, only about 10% of those who were divorced were over the age of 50. While a divorce can have financial ramifications for most Kentucky couples, those that occur later in life may carry especially significant circumstances. This is because there is less time to replenish a 401(k) or any other assets that were lost when a marriage ended.

It is also important to consider that individuals who get divorced could need to pay rent and other expenses on their own. Furthermore, it is worth noting that those who are older than 50 tend to have greater assets. Therefore, there are still in a relatively stronger financial position compared to younger people who end their marriages. A divorced male over the age of 50 has $165,000 more in assets than someone who has not yet reached 50. Women over the age of 50 who are divorced have $65,000 more than women under the age of 50.

The results of a survey consisting of 2,371 individuals who were recently divorced was published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. It found that there were four common reasons why Kentucky residents and others were most likely to end their marriages. One of these four reasons was a lack of communication in the relationship. If couples don't talk to each other on a regular basis, it can cause stress that weakens the bond they once had.

Another typical reason why people get divorced is that they lose trust or respect for their spouses. Research has found that respect can matter just as much as love when predicting whether a couple will stay together. In some cases, people found that they had simply grown apart from their partners. Upon discovering that they wanted different things than their significant others, they chose to end the relationship.