Hello everyone. It’s Chris Pritt back again with a new topic in West Virginia Divorce. Today, we’re going to be talking about whether you can enter into partial agreements in the context of a West Virginia divorce.
There are all sorts of issues that are going to be dealt with in a West Virginia divorce. There may or may not be children involved. You might be dealing with property division or alimony. Deciding whether there’s a fault for the divorce. Determining what the grounds are for the divorce. There are all sorts of issues that are going to be considered. Sometimes people can reach a complete agreement, and we’ve covered that in other discussions. What we’re specifically talking about today is whether you can enter into partial agreements. This happens more times than you would think.
To begin, let’s say the two people can agree on, for example, a property division. You can agree on property, and let’s say you can agree on whether there should be any spousal support. However, you can’t agree on child custody. What you can do is, you can come to an agreement on those issues, but reserve the issue of who gets the kids and when. It may also be that you agree on the children, but there are issues concerning property division. I can tell you that usually, issues regarding the property are a little bit easier to resolve because the laws governing it are a little bit more straight forward, and there’s not a whole lot of discretion. Those sorts of issues are easier than, for example, spousal support or child custody.
So, as you can see what people do oftentimes is, they’ll reach an agreement on one topic, but not others. Judges are usually very good about going along with that. They will hear partial issues and they will hear, let’s say a partial agreement on one thing, and then hear what the people have to say on other issues. So that’s something that happens quite frequently. I think it’s been very rare where I’ve seen a judge that does not allow that, but you must get an idea as to what the preferences are for the judge. So most judges will go along with it, but some will not in some instances.
So keep this in mind. You may or may not want to do this, but often it is helpful to be able to resolve things outside of court as much as possible. It can mean you’re going to be spending less time in court. Also, if you have an attorney there’s going to be fewer attorney fees involved. So often it’s very, very helpful.
So, that consists of today’s topic. If you have any questions at all, feel free to give me at (304) 720 4412. You can also email me at chris@prittlaw.com. Have a good day!
