What is separate maintenance and a legal separation?

Generally, when a marriage shows signs of failing, divorce is the way to go if things cannot get worked out. Perhaps no pre-marriage class was taken or the marriage was rushed, either way it is not working and both of you are miserable. However, for those who still want to give their relationship a second chance, and for those that are not comfortable with the concept of divorce, there is an alternative called a separation or separate maintenance.

An alternative

Separate maintenance is the equivalent to alimony in a traditional divorce, it facilitates one spouse supporting the other financially prior to, during and post the process of legal separation. Separate maintenance is a viable option for many who are not yet ready to throw in the towel on their marriage and spending hours and hours with their Alpharetta, GA divorce lawyer.

Legal separation is independent of divorce

Georgia divorce attorneys have confirmed that legal separation does not necessarily have to involve divorce or have anything to do with divorce at all. They are distinct, separate, and independent procedures.

All married couples have arguments, and that’s just the way things are. However, unfortunately for some couples the frequency of these arguments and the intensity of these arguments start to get way out of control. There are different ways in which they deal with such marital issues. Some couples try to work it out by themselves, some try marriage counseling while others decide to give each other some space and work on their issues while one of the spouse lives separately or away during this time. The latter is basically what is known as legal separation.

A separation can be planned in advance and is called a trial separation. This is where the couple establishes terms of the separation such as the separation period, and financial support arrangements, to name a few. This process can be made easier with the involvement of mediators or lawyers experienced in family law.

No one wants to be miserable. But not everyone wants a divorce on their record either. That is not a statistic too many people want to be a member of. There is a legal outlet though. There is convenient loophole but you do need an Alpharetta, Georgia divorce lawyer to work this out. You can find some of the best right here: http://divorce.usattorneys.com/georgia/.

At the beginning, the intention of the legal separation is to give the marriage a chance, the objective is reconciliation. However, if things turn worse and one or both spouses decide that the marriage is simply beyond repair then they may ease the legal separation process into a divorce or the couple can opt to simply remain legally separated. Their use of Alpharetta, Georgia divorce lawyers is limited.

Even though the latter is not a very popular option in America, some couples still tend to take this route especially if and when they are opposed to the idea of a divorce or it they are limited by some religious restraints that demand a marriage not be broken pretty much no matter what.

Legal separation is legitimate

When the couple decides that their marriage has come to an end, they can live separately through legal separation and still be able to figure out matters such as alimony, child custody, property division, and other related issues. For the most part, legal separation is a court recognized state of a marriage. Alimony in a legal separation is referred to as separate maintenance. It is where one spouse sends money to the other spouse after they have been legally separated.