Arkansas divorce laws
Child
Support
 Court orders that grant or modify child support will contain the court's determination of the payer's income, the amount of support required under the guidelines, and indicate whether the court deviated from the Family Support Chart. Any deviation from the guidelines will be justified in the order by the court.
Income is defined in Arkansas as any form of payment including wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, workers' compensation, disability, payments pursuant to a pension or retirement program, and interest. That income will be reduced by any of the following:
- Federal and state income tax;
- Withholding for Social Security (FICA), Medicare, and railroad retirement;
- Medical insurance paid for dependent children; and
- Presently paid support for other dependents by court order.
Calculating child support in Arkansas:
A month consists of 4.334 weeks. A Biweekly means a payer is paid once every two weeks or 26 times during a calendar year. Bi-monthly means a payer is paid twice a month or 24 times during a calendar year.
The guidelines for which child support are calculated are designed for situations in which the obligor nets $6000 per month or less. The guidelines are as follows (percentages are of obligors net income):
| 1
child |
20% |
| 2 children |
25% |
| 3 children |
30% |
| 4 children |
35% |
| 5 children |
40% |
| 6 children |
Not less than 40% |
Non salaried payers (Social Security Disability, VA disability, Worker's Comp disability, and Military personnel) receive somewhat different considerations. For commissioned workers, child support is based on the minimum draw plus any commissions.
For self-employed payers, child support is calculated based on the last two years' federal and state income tax returns and the quarterly estimates for the current year.
An affidavit of financial means is required to be completed in all family support matters. This requires each party to complete the affidavit and exchange them before a hearing to determine or modify child support. You'll very likely need to produce statements from banks, brokerage houses and the like, going back several years. If you don't have them now, get started now. Some can take weeks to receive.
Arkansas has established the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) for those parents needing assistance with child support. You will need to complete and submit a written application through the Department of Human Services. Applications are available through any OCSE office, or by calling 501-682-8398. Do you want to complete an application from home? Two forms are available on-line at these links: Custodial Parents and Non-Custodial Parents forms.
| Divorce Myth: Divorce may cause problems for many of the children who are affected by it, but by and large these problems are not long lasting and the children recover relatively quickly. Reality: Divorce increases the risk of interpersonal problems in children. There is evidence, both from small qualitative studies and from large-scale, long-term empirical studies, that many of these problems are long lasting. In fact, they may even become worse in adulthood. |
Residency
Requirements
One spouse must have resided in Arkansas for at least six months immediately preceding a filing. On the condition that the residency requirement has been met by one spouse, either the resident or non-resident may file in Arkansas. Note that this is not the norm for all states. Most jurisdictions require residency to file in that jurisdiction.
Child
Custody
 Arkansas family law assumes that awarding joint custody is in the best interest of the child. The final decree of the court defines the rights and obligations of each parent. Living arrangements are often designated to the person that has been the primary caretaker of the child.
Child custody. Courts are charged with awarding child custody while disregarding the sex of a parent. While this seems encouraging, the statistics bear out that Mother's receive custody in better than 4 out of 5 cases.
Depending on the child's age and ability to
reason, the court may consider the preferences
of the children with respect to where the primary home (custody) should
take place.
Should a grandparent's application for child custody be deemed to be in the best interest of the child, the courts are to deliberate without regard to the gender of that grandparent.
Should a grandparent petition the court for custody of a child (12) months of age or less, they must demonstrate the following:
-
A grandchild resides with this grandparent for at least six (6) continuous months prior to the grandchild's first birthday;
-
The grandparent was the primary caregiver for and financial supporter of the grandchild during the time the grandchild resided with the grandparent; and
-
The continuous custody occurred within one (1) year of the date the child custody proceeding was initiated.
A grandparent is entitled to notice and can be granted an opportunity to be heard in any child custody proceeding involving a grandchild who is twelve (12) months of age or older when:
- A grandchild resides with this grandparent for at least one (1) continuous year regardless of age;
- The grandparent was the primary caregiver for and financial supporter of the grandchild during the time the grandchild resided with the grandparent; and
- The continuous custody occurred within one (1) year of the date the child custody proceeding was initiated.
Arkansas courts are mandated to award custody so as to ensure the frequent and continuing contact of the child with both parents. For this reason, courts consider awarding joint custody unless factors indicate otherwise.
Grounds
for
Divorce
 If you are seeking to dissolve a covenant marriage, you are required to state that request in your petition.
The circuit court can grant a separation or divorce for the following causes (grounds for divorce):
- Either party, at the time of the contract, was and still is impotent;
- Conviction of a felony or other infamous crime;
- Demonstrated an addiction to habitual drunkenness for one (1) year, shall be guilty of such cruel and barbarous treatment as to endanger the life of the other, or shall offer such indignities to the person of the other as shall render his or her condition intolerable;
- Commit adultery after the marriage occurs;
- The court will grant a divorce if the parties have lived separately for 18 continuous months, regardless of fault or cause by either spouse.
- Should one of the parties be deemed insane, the other spouse will be required to care for and financially maintain that person for the duration of the insane person's life.
- Should the service of process be considered on the insane spouse, the petitioner is required to make service to a recognized guardian, guardian ad litem, or institution charged with that person's care.
Mediation
Mediation can be an effective tool to solve differences that parties would like to be settled without a court battle, although it is not mandatory.
When the parties to a divorce action have minor children residing with one (1) or both parents, the court, prior to or after entering a decree of divorce, may require the parties to:
- Complete at least two (2) hours of classes concerning parenting issues faced by divorced parents; or
- Submit to mediation in regard to addressing parenting, custody, and visitation issues
The costs of attending classes or mediation are to be borne individually.
| Divorce Myth: When parents don’t get along, children are better off if their parents divorce than if they stay together. Reality: A recent large-scale, long-term study suggests otherwise. While it found that parents’ marital unhappiness and discord have a broad negative impact on virtually every dimension of their children’s well-being, so does the fact of going through a divorce. In examining the negative impacts on children more closely, the study discovered that it was only the children in very high conflict homes who benefited from the conflict removal that divorce may bring. In lower-conflict marriages that end in divorce—and the study found that perhaps as many as two thirds of the divorces were of this type—the situation of the children was made much worse following a divorce. Based on the findings of this study, therefore, except in the minority of high-conflict marriages it is better for the children if their parents stay together and work out their problems than if they divorce. |
Alimony
 In Arkansas alimony is referred to as maintenance, and is often limited to three years as it is designed to be a temporary measure. This approach is not the norm across the states. Alimony can be awarded if two scenarios are identified: a spouse who has been married for a minimum of ten years and cannot support themselves may qualify for alimony/maintenance. The second situation would include family violence in which a spouse is convicted during the filing.
When the final decree is gaveled, the court will make orders concerning the alimony of the wife or the husband and the care of the children, if there are any. Alimony will automatically cease in Arkansas if any of the following occur:
- The date of the remarriage of the person who was awarded the alimony; or
- The establishment of a relationship that produces a child or children and results in a court order directing another person to pay support to the recipient of alimony, which circumstances would be considered the equivalent of remarriage; or
- The establishment of a relationship that produces a child or children and results in a court order directing the recipient of alimony to provide support of another person who is not a descendant by birth or adoption of the payer of the alimony, which circumstances shall be considered the equivalent of remarriage.
Arkansas uses the family support chart provided by legislation. That chart is to be revised every (4) years, by law. Child support typically terminates at the child's 18th birthday, but can be extended if the child's age of majority occurs before high school graduation. Should a child have a disability, child support can be extended.
The courts have the discretion to award alimony in fixed payments for a specified period, subject to death or remarriage of the recipient.
All orders requiring payments of money for the support and care of any children shall direct the payments to be made through the registry of the court unless the court in its discretion determines that it would be in the best interest of the parties to direct otherwise.
Waiting
Period
A minimum 30-day waiting period after filing for divorce exists before a divorce can be granted.
Grandparents
Rights
 Visitation rights of grandparents
A grandparent or great-grandparent may petition a circuit court of this state for reasonable visitation rights with respect to his or her grandchild or grandchildren or great-grandchild or great-grandchildren under this section if:
- The marital relationship between the parents of the child has been severed by death, divorce, or legal separation;
- The child is illegitimate and the petitioner is a maternal grandparent of the illegitimate child; or
- The child is illegitimate, the petitioner is a paternal grandparent of the illegitimate child, and paternity has been established by a court of competent jurisdiction.
| Divorce Myth: It is usually men who initiate divorce proceedings. Reality: Two-thirds of all divorces are initiated by women. One recent study found that many of the reasons for this have to do with the nature of our divorce laws. For example, in most states women have a good chance of receiving custody of their children. Because women more strongly want to keep their children with them, in states where there is a presumption of shared custody with the husband the percentage of women who initiate divorces is much lower.10 [Sources] Also, the higher rate of women initiators is probably due to the fact that men are more likely to be "badly behaved". |
Dividing
Assets
 Division of marital assets.
All marital property will be distributed one-half to each party unless the court finds such a division to be inequitable. In that event the court shall make some other division that the court deems equitable taking into consideration:
- Age, health, and station in life of the parties;
- The length of the marriage;
- Occupation of the parties;
- Amount and sources of income;
- Vocational skills;
- Employability; Estate, liabilities, and needs of each party and opportunity of each for further acquisition of capital assets and income;
- Contribution of each party in acquisition, preservation, or appreciation of marital property, including services as a homemaker; and
- The federal income tax consequences of the court's division of property
Should the court not divide the marital property
equally between the parties, the basis and
reasons will be recited in the order entered. Non-marital assets will be
returned to who owned it prior to the marriage. When stocks, bonds, or
other securities issued by a corporation, association, or government entity
make up part of the marital property, the court will designate in its final
order or judgment the specific property in securities to which each party
is entitled. The court is not required to address
the division of property at the time a divorce decree is entered if either
party is involved in a bankruptcy proceeding.
Did you come into this marriage owning a house?
Concerned about the equity in that house that you brought into the marriage?
Here's how it works generally. What you brought into the marriage is usually
all yours. However, any appreciation of the house or the property value
is normally treated as a "marital asset", meaning that you will
likely forfeit a third to a half of that appreciation to your spouse in
the divorce.
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