Understanding the Uncontested Divorce in Missouri

Perhaps you and your spouse have been talking about getting a divorce, and the two of you have already reached certain agreements concerning your children, your property, etc., and now you’re ready to visit with an attorney. The following information is to help you understand the issues that will generally need to be addressed in an uncontested divorce so that you will be ready when you meet with your lawyer.

 I.      An uncontested divorce means that you and your spouse have already reached an agreement with respect to ALL of the issues. These issues include child custody, a parenting time schedule, child support, division of assets, division of debts, and whether there will be any maintenance paid from one spouse to the other.

 II.     Child Custody / Parenting Plan – Your divorce will involve all minor children born between you and your spouse. It also includes children the two of you have adopted. It does NOT include step-children. You and your spouse will first have to decide upon the custody arrangement. (The preferred custody arrangement in Missouri is for the parents to have joint legal and joint physical custody with one of the parents’ address designated as the child’s address for educational and mailing purposes.) In addition to deciding upon the custody arrangements, you and your spouse will also need to be in agreement with respect to the parenting plan, which is a document that must be filed with the court. In Missouri, the following issues must be addressed in the parenting plan:

 (1) A specific written schedule detailing the custody, visitation and residential time for each child with each party including:

(a) Major holidays stating which holidays a party has each year;

(b) School holidays for school-age children;

(c) The child’s birthday, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day;

(d) Weekday and weekend schedules and for school-age children how the winter, spring, summer and other vacations from school will be spent;

(e) The times and places for transfer of the child between the parties in connection with the residential schedule;

(f) A plan for sharing transportation duties associated with the residential schedule;

(g) Appropriate times for telephone access;

(h) Suggested procedures for notifying the other party when a party requests a temporary variation from the residential schedule;

(i) Any suggested restrictions or limitations on access to a party and the reasons such restrictions are requested;

(2) A specific written plan regarding legal custody which details how the decision-making rights and responsibilities will be shared between the parties including the following:

(a) Educational decisions and methods of communicating information from the school to both parties;

(b) Medical, dental and health care decisions including how health care providers will be selected and a method of communicating medical conditions of the child and how emergency care will be handled;

(c) Extracurricular activities, including a method for determining which activities the child will participate in when those activities involve time during which each party is the custodian;

(d) Child care providers, including how such providers will be selected;

(e) Communication procedures including access to telephone numbers as appropriate;

(f) A dispute resolution procedure for those matters on which the parties disagree or in interpreting the parenting plan;

(g) If a party suggests no shared decision-making, a statement of the reasons for such a request;

(3) How the expenses of the child, including child care, educational and extraordinary expenses as defined in the child support guidelines established by the supreme court, will be paid including:

(a) The suggested amount of child support to be paid by each party;

(b) The party who will maintain or provide health insurance for the child and how the medical, dental, vision, psychological and other health care expenses of the child not paid by insurance will be paid by the parties;

(c) The payment of educational expenses, if any;

(d) The payment of extraordinary expenses of the child, if any;

(e) Child care expenses, if any;

(f) Transportation expenses, if any.

As you can see, there is much more that is involved in a parenting plan than just the issues of custody and a parenting time schedule, so you and your spouse will need to make sure you are in agreement on each of the items listed above.

III.      Child Support – You and your spouse will need to discuss the issue of child support and come to an agreement on how much, if any, child support is going to be paid by one spouse to the other. Keep in mind that the Missouri Supreme Court has rules regarding how much child support is presumed to be the correct amount based on your incomes and other factors, and the judge assigned to your case does not have to accept the child support amount that you and your spouse have agreed upon, although most of the time the judge will accept such an agreement.

IV.      Property Division – You and your spouse will need to reach agreements on how you are going to divide all of the marital assets, which is all property acquired during the marriage except for property acquired by gift (from someone other than your spouse) or inheritance. It does not matter whose name the property is titled under. Make sure you have addressed ALL of the marital property, which can include some or all of the following: real estate, motor vehicles, bank accounts, cash on hand, securities (stocks, bonds, etc.), life insurance cash values, household goods, retirement/pension funds, interests in trusts, interests in contracts made but not performed, interests in pending litigation or lawsuits, interests in farm equipment and livestock, debts owed to you by others, business interests, and other types of assets that have value.

V.      Debt Division – You and your spouse will also need to reach agreements on who is going to be responsible for each debt. Different types of debt may include: mortgages, installment loans (for example, a car loan), bank loans, equity lines of credit, credit card debts, medical bills (for each of you and for the children), past due utility bills and insurance premiums, and other types of debts. Debts generally do NOT include ongoing monthly expenses such as utilities, food, clothing, etc., unless you are making monthly payments on an outstanding balance.

VI.     Maintenance – You and your spouse will also need to discuss whether either of you is going to receive maintenance (what used to be called alimony) from the other. In deciding this issue, keep in mind that maintenance payments are taxable to the spouse receiving it, and is a deduction off the adjusted gross income for the spouse paying it, so there could be tax consequences as a result of any maintenance agreement you may reach.

In sum, if you and your spouse are looking at hiring an attorney for an uncontested divorce, it is important that the two of you have considered every aspect of the divorce, and that you are both truly in agreement on those issues. If the two of you are in agreement on everything, then your attorney can draft the Marital Separation and Property Settlement Agreement for each of you to sign. Once this is signed, it is then just a matter of preparing the remaining pleadings and financial statements (required by the court), and filing everything with the court. After that, you can expect your divorce to be finalized generally in about 60 to 90 days.

If you and your spouse are considering getting a divorce, and you feel you have reached an agreement concerning every aspect of the divorce, consider contacting the Law Office of Kenneth J. Geniuk, LLC  to schedule a free initial consultation.