Monday, November 1, 2010

Comparing Divorce to Legal Separation By Ricardo Tiu Mendes

Contrasting divorce, a legal separation does not actually terminate marriage. During this, a court order has been issued to signify every right and responsibility of a spouse during separation. You are still married though you two live separately. You can also address issues regarding division of assets and debts, child custody and child support, visitation schedules and spousal support.
A legal separation agreement is also addressed. This can protect your interests while the agreement is in effect, up until the decision is made for filing divorce. The separation agreement also sets preference to the upcoming divorce. If you two divorce right after your separation, and your case has brought up to the court, there will be an assumption from the judge that since you two agreed with the legal separation agreement, the agreement should carry over to the divorce settlement agreement. Therefore, it is important that you come to a separation agreement in a long term basis.
Although a legal separation and divorce do share common aspects and factors, obtaining a legal separation is advantageous over filing a divorce right away. It is not because you do not have to think of dividing assets and putting your children into custody, but to think of the best ways to resolve the marital differences. These are the following advantages:
• It allows couples to think, with given time and setting aside the conflict of the marriage to decide if divorce is what they truly want or to resolve the issue by reconciliation.
• It allows withholding of medical benefits and certain other benefits (like financial assistance, undivided property and assets, and delayed child custody issues) that divorce would likely to close stages with.
• If your religious beliefs have to do with your conflict to the idea of divorce, then you are probably able to live separate from each other, yet you keep hold of your marital status for the sake of your religion.
• If you are a spouse who serves the military, you have the option to remain the "married" status for 10 years so that you can still receive benefits set up by the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act.
• Remaining married for 10 years or more also means being able to take advantage of certain social security benefits for a spouse.
• If the decision to divorce is made, the legal separation agreement automatically converted into a divorce settlement agreement without any additional charges.
The author of this article is Ricardo Mendes. He is a writer and a person who loves dealing with different life circumstances. To know more of him, visithttp://www.needadivorceonline.com

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