FAQs
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Can I Get My Maiden Name Back After My Divorce?
Can I Get My Maiden Name Back After My Divorce? Yes, and the divorce judgment itself does it, so you do not have to file a separate name change case or publish a notice in a newspaper. That is the short answer and it is the one most people are looking for. It holds...
Do I Have to Wait Until the End of My Case to Get Custody of My Child?
Do I Have to Wait Until the End of My Case to Get Custody of My Child? No. Missouri law lets you ask for a temporary custody order while the case is still pending, and that order can be entered long before anyone sees a trial date. If your child is in danger right...
Divorce Appeal, What Are the 2 Deadlines You Must Meet?
If you have just read a judgment you did not expect, the clock is already running. Missouri gives you a short window to appeal a divorce, and the window does not start on the day the judge signs. Here is how the timing actually works and what an appeals court can and...
What is a Default Hearing?
What Is a Default Hearing in Missouri? A default hearing is where the party who filed the case asks the judge to grant what the petition requested because the other side never responded in time. Every family court case starts the same way. The other party is served...
What is Sole Legal Custody?
What Is Sole Legal Custody in Missouri? Sole legal custody means one parent holds the decision making authority over the children's health, education and welfare, so that parent has the final say on major decisions rather than sharing them. Legal custody is about...
What is Joint Legal Custody?
What Is Joint Legal Custody in Missouri? Joint legal custody means both parents share the decision making about their children's health, education and welfare, and unless the court divides those decisions up, the parents have to confer with each other before making...
How Much Will A Divorce Cost in St. Louis?
How Much Does a Divorce Cost in Missouri? A divorce in Missouri starts at $194.50 in St. Louis County court costs and goes up from there depending on how much of the work you hand to an attorney. The divorce cost range is wide, and where you land in it has more to do...
The Perks of an Uncontested Divorce
What Is an Uncontested Divorce in Missouri? An uncontested divorce is one where you and your spouse already agree on every term before the case is filed, so the court is asked to approve an agreement rather than decide a dispute. That word already is doing a lot of...
Missouri Child Support Laws, What Are the 5 Key Rules?
Child support is the part of a family law case that generates the most arguments and the least clear information. Here is how it actually works in Missouri, in plain language, including the one rule that decides whether an existing order can be changed. Estimate Your...
What Is a Guardian ad Litem, What Are the 3 Duties?
If a judge has appointed a guardian ad litem in your case, or your lawyer has said one is coming, it is normal to feel watched. Here is exactly what the role is, what that person is allowed to do, who pays for them, and what actually happens next. What Is a Guardian...
Municipal Court vs Circuit Court, Which Hears My Divorce?
Municipal court vs circuit court comes down to one line in Missouri, the circuit court hears every divorce, custody and family law case, and the municipal court hears none of them. Municipal courts handle violations of a single city's ordinances, things like speeding...
How to Adopt a Child in Missouri, What Are the 6 Steps?
Adopting a child in Missouri is mostly a court process, and the court has a specific order it wants things done in. Here is that order in plain language, along with the parts that most often slow a case down. How Do You Adopt a Child in Missouri? To adopt a child in...
Does Divorce Affect Credit Score, What 5 Mistakes to Avoid?
Money is the part of a divorce that keeps people awake, and your credit score is usually near the top of the list. Here is the reassuring part. The divorce itself does not damage your credit. The risky part is what happens to the accounts while the case is running,...
Alimony vs Spousal Support: Is There Really a Difference?
What is the Difference Between Maintenance, Alimony, and Spousal Support? Nothing. These are all different words for the exact same thing: payments made to a former spouse for either a predetermined or undetermined amount of time to be used to financially support the...
Municipal Court vs Circuit Court, Which Hears My Divorce?
Municipal court vs circuit court comes down to one line in Missouri, the circuit court hears every divorce, custody and family law case, and the municipal court hears none of them. Municipal courts handle violations of a single city's ordinances, things like speeding...
How to Tell Kids About Divorce, What Should You Never Say?
Most parents ask about the children before they ask about the money, and usually before they ask about themselves. If the thing keeping you up is whether your kids will still feel close to you afterward, that fear is normal and it is worth answering carefully. Here is...
Where Will My Kids Live After a Divorce?
Where Will My Kids Live After a Divorce? Wherever the parenting plan in your judgment says, and Missouri now starts from a presumption that roughly equal parenting time is in a child's best interests. That presumption is rebuttable, which means evidence can move it....
Every Other Weekend Custody Schedule, How Does It Work?
If someone in your case has used the word "Siegenthaler," you are probably wondering whether it is a rule, a form, or something your lawyer made up. It is none of those. It is shorthand for a parenting time schedule, named after a Missouri appeals case from 1988, and...
What is a Parenting Plan?
What Is a Parenting Plan in Missouri? A parenting plan is a written document each parent proposes, setting out the custody schedule, how decisions about the children get made, and how the children's expenses get paid, which becomes a court order once a judge adopts...
What is the Young Child Plan?
What Is the Young Child Plan? A young child plan is a parenting schedule that starts with short, frequent visits with the parent the child has spent less time with, and expands as the child gets older. The name is local practice shorthand. It is what St. Louis area...
Do I Have to Wait Until the End of My Case to Get Custody of My Child?
Do I Have to Wait Until the End of My Case to Get Custody of My Child? No. Missouri law lets you ask for a temporary custody order while the case is still pending, and that order can be entered long before anyone sees a trial date. If your child is in danger right...
What is a Default Hearing?
What Is a Default Hearing in Missouri? A default hearing is where the party who filed the case asks the judge to grant what the petition requested because the other side never responded in time. Every family court case starts the same way. The other party is served...
What Is Missouri Form 14?
What Is Missouri Form 14? It is the worksheet that produces the presumed child support amount in every Missouri case. Its official name is Civil Procedure Form No. 14, the Child Support Amount Calculation Worksheet, and the number it generates is presumed correct...
Municipal Court vs Circuit Court, Which Hears My Divorce?
Municipal court vs circuit court comes down to one line in Missouri, the circuit court hears every divorce, custody and family law case, and the municipal court hears none of them. Municipal courts handle violations of a single city's ordinances, things like speeding...
What Is a Vocational Exam?
What Is a Vocational Exam in a Divorce Case? It is an evaluation of what someone is able to earn, done by a vocational professional, and used where income or earning capacity is in dispute. The expert looks at education, work history, health, the local job market and...
What is a Default Hearing?
What Is a Default Hearing in Missouri? A default hearing is where the party who filed the case asks the judge to grant what the petition requested because the other side never responded in time. Every family court case starts the same way. The other party is served...
Missouri Child Support Laws, What Are the 5 Key Rules?
Child support is the part of a family law case that generates the most arguments and the least clear information. Here is how it actually works in Missouri, in plain language, including the one rule that decides whether an existing order can be changed. Estimate Your...
Does a Quit Claim Deed Get Me Off the Mortgage?
Does a Quit Claim Deed Get Me Off the Mortgage? No. A quit claim deed transfers whatever interest you hold in the property. It does nothing at all to the promissory note you signed, and the lender is not a party to your divorce. This is the most common and most...
Can You Set Aside a Divorce Decree in Missouri?
Can You Set Aside a Divorce Decree in Missouri? Sometimes, on narrow grounds, and it is a different thing from modifying one. Rule 74.06(b) lets a court relieve a party from a final judgment for mistake, fraud, irregularity, voidness or satisfaction, and the Supreme...
Should I Hire a Private Investigator in a Missouri Divorce?
Should I Hire a Private Investigator in a Missouri Divorce? That is a decision for you and your own attorney on your own facts, and this page will not make it for you. What it will do is set out the law, because Missouri regulates investigators by statute and one...
Can a QDRO Divide Deferred Compensation in a Divorce?
Can a QDRO Divide Deferred Compensation in a Divorce? Generally no, and the reason most articles give is backwards. A qualified domestic relations order cannot reach an unfunded top hat plan, and it is not because an anti alienation rule blocks it. ERISA takes those...
Who Pays for a Business Valuation in a Missouri Divorce?
Who Pays for a Business Valuation in a Missouri Divorce? Whoever orders it pays for it up front, and a Missouri court can be asked to shift that cost to the other spouse under Section 452.355 RSMo. The statute reaches the cost of maintaining or defending a proceeding...
Is My Spouse’s Business Valued at Separation or at Trial?
Is My Spouse's Business Valued at Separation or at Trial? At trial. The Supreme Court of Missouri settled the business valuation date in 1987 and the rule has not moved since, which means growth in the company during a long separation is generally still on the table....
How Long Does a Guardian ad Litem Investigation Take?
How Long Does a Guardian ad Litem Investigation Take? There is no statutory deadline. Missouri sets no time limit on a guardian ad litem investigation, and in practice the work runs alongside the case rather than on its own clock, which in a contested custody matter...
How Are Stock Options Divided in a Missouri Divorce?
How Are Stock Options Divided in a Missouri Divorce? Options granted during the marriage are marital property even if you cannot exercise them yet, and Missouri has said so since 1984. Options granted after the decree are not, because by then there was nothing to...
Are Unvested Stock Options Marital Property in Missouri?
Are Unvested Stock Options Marital Property in Missouri? Yes, where they were granted during the marriage. Missouri settled this in 1984 on facts where most of the options could not be exercised yet, and the reasoning is that the option was already earned when it was...
Can You Modify a Divorce Decree in Missouri?
Can You Modify a Divorce Decree in Missouri? Partly. Support and custody terms can be modified on the right showing. The property division cannot be, because Section 452.330.5 RSMo makes it a final order not subject to modification. That split is the single most...
What Is a Guardian ad Litem, What Are the 3 Duties?
If a judge has appointed a guardian ad litem in your case, or your lawyer has said one is coming, it is normal to feel watched. Here is exactly what the role is, what that person is allowed to do, who pays for them, and what actually happens next. What Is a Guardian...
Can I Fight the Order of Protection Against Me?
Can I Fight an Order of Protection in Missouri? Yes. An order of protection is a contested civil case, the person who filed it carries the burden of proof, and Missouri appellate courts have reversed these orders when the evidence did not support them. That is the...
The Perks of an Uncontested Divorce
What Is an Uncontested Divorce in Missouri? An uncontested divorce is one where you and your spouse already agree on every term before the case is filed, so the court is asked to approve an agreement rather than decide a dispute. That word already is doing a lot of...