Divorce & Family Law Summary
U.S. Divorce Laws are enacted by each state using their respective legislative process. Once legislation is enacted into law, the divorce courts in Oklahoma have the authority to manage the divorce proceedings, including spousal support and child support payments, custodial rights of parents, and the division of property.
Since state laws are repealed and amended frequently, it is always advisable to consult with an experienced divorce lawyer before making important decisions about your marriage.
All states allow for “no-fault” divorce. Yet many courts still factor in the respective parties’ past behavior when determining the division of community property, debts, custody, support, and related issues.
Read our expanded article on the divorce process for a deeper and more realistic understanding of the challenges you’re likely to face.
GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE – NO FAULT
No fault with a waiting period. The statutory fault system is also available without requiring a waiting period.
SEPARATION WAITING PERIOD
If the divorce is uncontested and the parties have minor children, there is a 90-day waiting period after the petition is filed and before the court can grant the divorce.
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT
One or both of the parties must, in good faith, be an actual resident of Oklahoma for six months preceding the filing of the Petit.
STATUTORY GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE
A divorce may be granted for any of the following statutory causes:
- Abandonment for one (1) year.
- Adultery.
- Impotence.
- When the wife at the time of her marriage, was pregnant by another than her husband.
- Extreme cruelty.
- Fraudulent contract.
- Incompatibility.
- Habitual drunkenness.
- Gross neglect of duty.
- Imprisonment in a state or federal penal institution under sentence thereto for the commission of a felony when the petition is filed.
- The procurement of a final divorce decree without this state by a husband or wife does not release the other party from the obligations of the marriage.
- Insanity for five (5) years.
LEGAL SEPARATION
An action for legal separation may be brought in the county in which either party is a resident at the time of the filing of the petition.
SPECIAL DIVORCE PROCEDURES
In action for divorce where there are minor children involved, the court shall not issue a final order thereon for at least ninety (90) days from the date of filing the petition, which the court may waive ninety (90) days for a good cause shown and without objection by either party.
MEDIATION-COUNSELING REQUIREMENTS
In all actions for divorce, separate maintenance, guardianship, paternity, custody, or visitation, including modifications or enforcements of a prior court order, where a child under eighteen (18) years of age is involved, the court may require all adult parties to attend an educational program concerning the impact of separate parenting and co-parenting on children, the implications for visitation and conflict management, development of children, particular financial responsibility for children and such other instruction as deemed necessary by the court. The program shall be educational and not designed for individual therapy.
PROPERTY DISTRIBUTION
Oklahoma is an equitable distribution state. The court shall enter its decree confirming in each spouse the property they owned before marriage and the undisposed-of property acquired after marriage by them in their own right.
Property that has been acquired by the parties jointly during their marriage shall be divided between the parties in a just and reasonable manner, subject to any valid antenuptial contracts in writing. This may be accomplished by dividing the property in kind or setting the same apart to one of the parties and requiring the other thereof to be paid such sum as may be just and proper to effect a fair and just division thereof.
ALIMONY
In Oklahoma, there are two kinds of spousal support: spousal maintenance and alimony. Alimony is not a legal right but a remedy for the financial disparity between spouses after the divorce. The courts determine the amount and duration of alimony based on several factors.
Alimony may be allowed from real or personal property, or both, or in the form of a money judgment, payable either in gross or in installments, as the court may deem just and equitable. The court shall also provide in the divorce decree that the support payments, if not already accrued, shall terminate upon the death or remarriage of the recipient.
The provisions of any divorce decree about the payment of alimony as support may be modified upon proof of changed circumstances relating to the need for approval or ability to support, which are substantial and continue to make the terms of the decree unreasonable to either party.
SPOUSE’S NAME
When a divorce is granted, the wife shall be restored to her maiden or former name if she so desires.
CHILD CUSTODY
The court may grant a child’s care, custody, and control to either parent or the parents jointly. In awarding the possession of a minor unmarried child or appointing a general guardian for said child, the court shall consider what appears to be in the best interests of the child’s physical and mental and moral welfare.
When awarding custody to either parent, the court must consider, among other facts, which parent is more likely to allow the child or children frequent and continuing contact with the non-custodial parent and must not prefer a parent as a custodian of the child because of the gender of that parent.
CHILD SUPPORT
Oklahoma used the Income Shares Model to determine child support. It is required that all families incur certain child-rearing expenses and include an average amount to cover these expenses for various levels of the parents’ combined adjusted gross income and the number of children, such as housing, food, transportation, basic public educational expenses, clothing, and entertainment.
Except in those cases where parties represented by counsel have agreed to a different disposition, there shall be a rebuttable presumption in any judicial or administrative proceeding for the award of child support that the amount of the award which would result from the application of the following guidelines is the correct amount of child support to be awarded.
The district or administrative court may deviate from the amount of child support indicated by the child support guidelines if the amount of support shown is unjust, inequitable, unreasonable, or inappropriate under the circumstances or not in the child’s best interests.
SAME-SEX DIVORCE
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is a right protected by the U.S. Constitution in all 50 states. It follows, therefore, that the rights and obligations between same-sex divorcing parties are subject to the same dissolution laws of that state. Reference: U.S. Supreme Court Opinion: Obergefell v. Hodges. (For more information, visit ProCon.org).
