What are legal obligations towards the spouse and children while going through the divorce?

Question

Me and my spouse are going through the divorce.

We had a mediation session on 10th August (roughly a month ago).

J______ has been in touch to let us know that she no longer wishes to continue with mediation.

It appears to me that we will have to go to the court.

I would like to know what are my legal obligations right now?

Below is an email received from Mediation service, unfortunately it is vague:

There are no explicit rights around visitation and contact for parents, although parents do have an obligation to maintain their children. The parents can make decisions around contact arrangements; where no agreement can be reached, the Court can make decisions around arrangements for the children. The C100 is the form you will need to complete and submit together with the signed page 19 form to make an application for child arrangements.

Each parent has a responsibility to maintain any children financially. Parents can decide how much maintenance will be. If this is not possible an option is to contact the Child Maintenance Service who can calculate the amount.

I believe in:

• AI (artificial intelligence)
• crowdsourced wisdom
• collective consciousness

More than an individual lawyer who has pervert incentives of charing me hourly rate rather than getting things done. On that basis I decided to document the process in an indestructible (been meditating on it for more than a month) manner on the blockchain.

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I provided background information for a reason - I strongly believe that context, intention, surrounding information can play a key role in understanding the whole situation:

• we do not communicate directly
• we have post-nup agreement
• my spouse claims I'm allegedly mentally ill
• my spouse claims she has received eviction letter - date of eviction is 10th November

(I don't find it believable, the last day at property is 7th September, it's unlikely to have court hearing and get letter delivered by 9th September)

Answer 1

A good place to start would be the Government website. However, it doesn't really say more than the mediation service told you (and should be obvious); preferably you should agree on child custody and maintenance, and if that is not possible even after mediation the Court will have to decide. Until the judgment (or settlement out of court) you both still have a responsibility for the welfare of the children.

It is, of course, your choice whether to instruct a lawyer or to study divorce law sufficiently to represent yourself at the hearing(s). However, you should at the very least take advice on confidentiality: some parts of the process are intentionally private, and making them public will, as contempt of court, count against you at the least. If you deliberately break the law by publicising the wrong things in a way that cannot be deleted, you may go to prison.

Answer 2

There are no explicit rights around visitation and contact for parents, although parents do have an obligation to maintain their children.

Totally incorrect! I have been working in Family Law for over 12 years now and SMS Attorneys have over 20 years of experience in family litigation and on that bases, I say that Every state has laws that govern the visitations and contracts.

If your concern is to be involved with the child than you need to serve the other parent with court papers to request the court to enter you into a Joint Custody. You can do this yourself if you have the knowledge to do so, a flat fee attorney can help you as well to avoid paying hourly fees.