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Legal separation versus divorce is a pretty common question asked among married couples considering ending their marriage. These choices are not mutually exclusive, but it’s essential to understand their differences and how they can affect you during legal proceedings. As many are aware, a legal separation does not end a marriage. Still, it allows the couple to live separately while maintaining their marital status until they agree on property division and child custody issues.
Legal separation gives you a chance to work through your troubles without the stigma of divorce.
It can help you re-assess what you want from your marriage and discover new things about yourself. You may find that you have become accustomed to living a particular lifestyle and prefer to live a different one. If that is true, then it might be time for a change.
The disadvantages of legal separation:
- You will never know for sure if your marriage is over. The truth is, it may still be alive and well — or there might be no marriage at all. You also never know your financial situation after the divorce – it could be better or worse than it is now.
- Discord amongst the parties. The most significant disadvantage of legal separation is the possibility that the parties are not on the same page regarding their future plans. Some people think they can do everything themselves, but many conflicts are hidden behind closed doors. It’s possible that the only solution to your problem is to work through them together.
- Difficulties in child custody and visitation rights. Legal separation does not give you any special privileges in child custody or visitation arrangements except those granted by law. Suppose one parent wants joint custody with shared parenting time for the children. In that case, they must ask for this legally rather than expect it to happen naturally because they are cohabitating or are separated without being legally divorced.
- The specific advantages you agreed upon during the basic marriage agreement may not be legally binding. The agreement might have been made without adequate consultation with an attorney, leaving you with the disadvantage of not knowing the ins and outs of your legal protections. Getting a lawyer involved from the beginning can help protect you from this disadvantage.
- Your spouse could divorce you as soon as the legal separation is finalized. For a legal separation to become permanent, it must be preceded by a court’s decree of dissolution of marriage in one state. The legal decision will only last long enough for the court proceedings to be completed and a final judgment rendered. You cannot force your spouse to remain in a legally separated relationship indefinitely.
Legal separation provides you with protection when your spouse refuses to pay alimony or any other court-ordered spousal support.
Legal separation can be an effective way to protect your marital property and protect you from being denied access to funds after a divorce. However, there are some potential disadvantages if you decide to go this route.
Legal separation offers less confusion over custody and child support matters.
Most parents involved in a separation or divorce can agree to a division of assets and custody arrangements. However, many contentious issues, including child support payments, can make the process even more difficult.
In some cases, a legal separation may offer benefits for one or both of you. If you have children, you’ll have to decide how to divide child support and custody matters. Legal separation might help if you do not want a divorce yet and don’t want to stay married without an agreement on custody and child support.
In many states, legal separation offers the most flexibility when dividing time with your kids. A court can decide that your spouse can have full-time parenting time or shared parenting time. In most states, the court will decide this based on the best interests of the children.
Legal separation also allows couples to move forward in their lives without deciding on divorce right away. However, there are also disadvantages to this option. Legal separation does not protect your assets from being divided in a divorce proceeding — a court will determine who gets what in a legal separation case just like it would in an actual divorce case. And while separated spouses cannot be held liable for each other’s debts during their marriage, they can be held responsible for debt incurred during their separate marriage if they didn’t stop paying after the couple separated.
Legal separation offers benefits that draw couples back together, but it doesn’t always work.
For those separating and contemplating divorce, legal separation offers a way to maintain some of the things that brought couples together in the first place: joint finances and custody of the children.
But there’s a downside: It’s not always easy to reunite after legal separation. And if your spouse remarries, it can mean the end of your legal partnership.
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