DEFINITION

• Family Law is the legal specialty, sometimes also called Domestic Relations, concerned with legal issues such as adoption, divorce, legal separation, marriage, paternity, custody and child support.

• The Supreme Court has held that all individuals have the fundamental right to marry, as guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The states have the right to determine reasonable formal requirements -- such as licensing, age and legal capacity -- in order for the marriage to be sanctioned by the state.

• There are three types of legal remedies available to a spouse who desires to end a marital relationship: annulment, legal separation and divorce. If there are children of the marriage, an agreement must be reached as to the living arrangements and financial support of minor children. In resolving issues of custody, courts look only to the "best interest of the child."

FIND A FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY IN YOUR AREA.

More information on Family Law:

• Adoption
• Child Custody & Visitation
• Child Support
• Divorce
• Marriage & Living Together

RELATED PRACTICE AREAS

Mediation & Collaborative Law
Estate Planning
Real Estate Law

BUZZWORDS

Adoption - Legal process pursuant to state statute in which a child's legal rights and duties toward his natural parents are terminated and similar rights and duties toward his adoptive parents are substituted.

Alimony - Monetary support that husband or wife pays the other spouse by court order for maintenance while they are separated or after they are divorced.

Annulment - To nullify, abolish and make void by competent authority. An annulment differs from a divorce in that a divorce terminates a marriage, whereas an annulment establishes that a marriage never existed.

Child Support - The legal obligation of parents to contribute to the economic maintenance of their children. In a dissolution or custody action, money paid by one parent to another toward the expenses of the children.

Community Property - Property owned in common by husband and wife, each having an undivided one-half interest by reason of their marital status.

Custody - In Family Law, the control and maintenance of a child awarded by the court to the parents in a divorce or separation proceeding.

Divorce - A legal decree by the court that totally dissolves the marital relationship between husband and wife.

Guardian - A person lawfully invested with the power, and charged with the duty, of taking care and managing the property of another who is incapable of administering his or her own affairs.

Guardianship - A legal arrangement under which one person (a guardian) has the legal right and duty to care for another (the ward) and his or her property. A guardianship is established because of the ward's inability to legally act on his or her own behalf.

Legal Separation - The living apart of husband and wife, in which support and maintenance are detailed in a document issued by the court.

Marital Property - Property purchased or accumulated by spouses that is divided on dissolution of the marriage.

PRACTICE AREA NOTES

• Most Family Law attorneys handle separation, divorce and child custody matters in Family Court. Many are solo practitioners. Most firms, large or small, have at least one attorney who handles Domestic Relations matters.
• Family Law attorneys are usually paid a retainer to start the case, and then bill an hourly rate when the retainer is exhausted.
• Because of no-fault divorce statutes, divorce cases usually go to trial only when a financial settlement cannot be reached between the parties or when there is a custody issue that cannot be resolved.
• There is a current trend in Family Law to mediate an agreement between the parties, thus avoiding a costly trial. Mediation can occur when a neutral third party, usually an attorney, assists the couple in reaching an amicable agreement. Some Family Law practices also include mediation services.