Protecting Your Rights For Over 35 Years

Does retirement impact the obligation to pay alimony in a “Gray” Divorce?

It might, if the person paying alimony experiences as significant change in income, which might be the case with retirement. Alimony can be modified by the court, so even if there is still an obligation to pay after retirement, it could be possible to reduce the amount. Alimony reduction requests are assessed on a case by case basis, so every situation is different and should be reviewed by an attorney.

How Divorcing Later In Life Can Affect Your Retirement Plans?

Legal action to change a child's last name is common when the parents are unmarried. In Bonilla v Appeal of Probate Court. A mother appealed a probate court decision not permitting her to change her child's last name to her new husband's last name. The court has absolute discretion to make this ruling. The Superior court supported the decision that in the absence of proof that the child was being embarrassed by having a different last name than his mother and with the proof that he had a strong connection to his father and his heritage, his father's last name should remain.

The requirement to pay for the college education expenses of children after High School was addressed recently in Starkowski v Maciolek, 65 Conn.L.Rptr 19, 2018. There the Superior Court reaffirmed that the children of unmarried parents also are covered by the State Statute 46b-56c which imposes an obligation on divorced parents to contribute to the college education expenses of their children.

Immigration issues are becoming common in marriage dissolution actions. In the 2017 case of Choudary v Gazzarapu , 65 Conn.L. Rptr 4, 131, The court ruled that a divorce should not be delayed because one spouse needs to remain married for a fixed amount of time to secure immigration status. When one spouse needs residency status, a divorce can cause serious immigration problems, but it can not be put off indefinitely.

Child support is generally paid by wage withholding and up to age 18 unless the child is still attending High School. In the recent case of Baio v Baoi 65 Conn.L. Rptr. No 3, 105, the father continued to pay by wage withholding for one year after his legal obligation ended. When he tried to get reimbursed for the overpayment the court ruled that she did not have an obligation to refund support because he had an obligation to stop the payments earlier.

How unfair our system can be.

When grandparents are seeking visitation with grandchildren over a parent's objection they have to prove that they had a parent-like relationship and that a denial of visitation would cause real and significant harm to the grandchild. Grandparents were successful in the 2017 case of Boisvert v Gavis 65 Conn.L.Rptr. No. 2, 81 where they used a psychologist to testify that interrupting the child's relationship with the grandparents would cause real harm to the child.

Connecticut Court still retains jurisdiction to enforce the retirement pay distribution

In most divorce cases the distribution of pension and retirement benefits are not finalized for years. A recent Connecticut case of Shaw v. Shaw 62 Conn.L. Rptr. No. 20, 2016 indicates that the Connecticut Court still retains jurisdiction to enforce the retirement pay distribution even when both spouses have left the state. In this case, one spouse refused to cooperate and tried to avoid payment by leaving Connecticut.

Paternity when fraud or duress is involved

In a recent Paternity case the Superior Court ruled that there is no limitations period for a father to challenge a judgment of paternity when fraud or duress was involved. See Tata v Levine, CT Sup Ct 64 Conn.L. Rptr 19, 2017. However, the father must present clear and convincing evidence that he was deceived into signing paternity papers.