State, not federal, laws regulate marriage and divorce. The federal government provides certain rights to married people, including the right to have your marriage recognized in any state. However, as of the date of this article’s publication, they have mostly stayed out of marriage and divorce. The lack of federal involvement means there are differences in the way divorce is handled in each state. Even so, the states have generally coalesced around two or three ways of handling the matters relating to divorce.
As we cover the basics of divorce law, we will highlight the areas you will need to learn about in your particular state. In this do-it-yourself era, you may be tempted to read through your state’s family law statutes online or in a library to get these details. We applaud any effort to become more educated about divorce. One place where you can find a great deal of state-specific information about divorce laws is Divorce Source’s state divorce laws section.
Another online source for state-specific information is your state court’s website. You can locate the site by doing an Internet search for the name of your state followed by “courts”. For instance, “Maryland courts” shows the Maryland Judiciary site as the first result. Once you locate the website for your state’s courts look for “divorce,” frequently asked questions (FAQ), or a self-help center. In most cases you will find the state-specific process information you need.
An important thing to keep in mind when reading your state’s laws is that the law’s text is only part of the story. For simple situations, the statutes are likely to provide understandable wording that is interpreted in court as you would expect. But in more complex circumstances, judges resolve conflicts in the law or determine how to handle situations that lawmakers did not explicitly address. It is usually necessary to work with a lawyer to understand the relevance of any prior court decisions to your divorce. Aside from knowing about many legal principles, a local family law attorney will be, or should be, familiar with these judicial opinions.
