Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.Formally, a mortgage lender (mortgagee), or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower (mortgagor)’s equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law (after following a specific statutory procedure). Usually a lender obtains a security interest from a borrower who mortgages or pledges an asset like a house to secure the loan. If the borrower defaults and the lender tries to repossess the property, courts of equity can grant the borrower the equitable right of redemption if the borrower repays the debt. While this equitable right exists, it is a cloud on title and the lender cannot be sure that they can repossess the property. Therefore, through the process of foreclosure, the lender seeks to immediately terminate the equitable right of redemption and take both legal and equitable title to the property in fee simple. Other lien holders can also foreclose the owner’s right of redemption for other debts, such as for overdue taxes, unpaid contractors’ bills or overdue homeowner association dues or assessments. How Foreclosure WorksWhen you buy expensive property, such as a home, you might not have enough money to pay the entire purchase price up front. However, you can pay a portion of the price with a down payment, and borrow the rest of the money (to be repaid in future years). Homes can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and most people don’t earn anywhere near that much annually. Why are lenders willing to offer such large loans? As part of the loan agreement, you agree that the property you’re buying will serve as collateral for the loan: if you stop making payments, the lender can take possession of the property in order to recover the funds they lent you. To secure this right, the lender has a lien on your property, and to improve their chances of getting enough money, they (usually) only lend if you’ve got a good loan to value ratio. How to Stop or Postpone a Foreclosure Sale DateMany homeowners believe once they’ve received a letter saying their home is being foreclosed on, all hope is lost and they have no option to turn it around. Some people even make an effort to move out once the letter arrives because the foreclosure sale date has already been set. All it takes is to know how to postpone a foreclosure sale date to stop foreclosure. Some folks are not aware of the fact that home foreclosure can actually be stopped or postponed. Experienced foreclosure attorneys know how to stop a foreclosure sale date and even postpone a foreclosure sale date if that works better for your life situation. How to Stop Foreclosure Sale DateWhen looking to stop a foreclosure sale date, the first course of action is to remain calm and realize there are many options available. 1. Contact lender for mortgage statements and ask for forbearance. 2. Decide if you want to pay the balance or refinance. 3. Challenge the foreclosure with a lawsuit. 4. File for bankruptcy. 5. Offer the house up for a short sale. These are just a few approaches that obviously require more detail and activity to achieve the goal of stopping a foreclosure. However, it gives you an idea of the variety of possibilities available for keeping your home despite receiving a notice of default letter. The best way to know what option is viable for your life situation is to consult with an experienced law firm with a previous track record of helping families save their home from foreclosure. Our law firm is available to offer a Free Consultation. Call us at 8801-676-5506There are options you can take to postpone foreclosure date. Homeowners can postpone their sale date multiple times. There are even some steps to stop a foreclosure sale date but the best tactic is to let the expert help you, hire a foreclosure attorney. Options that can Postpone a Foreclosure Sale Date Simply ASK for a Postponement This is a logical step to getting your sale date postponed. Call your mortgage company and ask them to postpone the sale date. Then make sure to keep in touch with them so the lines of communication remain open. Bankruptcy stops foreclosure dead in its tracks. Once you file a bankruptcy petition, federal law prohibits any debt collectors, including your mortgage lender, from continuing collection activities. Foreclosure is considered a collection activity, and so the day your lender becomes aware that you have filed for bankruptcy, the foreclosure process will effectively be frozen. But here’s the rub; once you get to court, the bankruptcy trustee’s role is simply to play referee or mediator between you and your creditors. Bankruptcy really just buys you more time to replace your lost job or recover financially from a temporary disability; it doesn’t let you off the hook for your debts. The law requires your mortgage company and other creditors to work in good faith with you to formulate a reasonable repayment plan so you can get back on track. Consult with a bankruptcy attorney regarding whether filing for bankruptcy is a good strategy for you.A Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy (one in which you are looking to discharge, as opposed to restructuring, debt) may buy you some time, but eventually, the foreclosure process will continue, seeks to discharge all debt. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy (BK-13), by contrast, seeks to establish a manageable debt repayment plan. Once a BK-13 has been filed, the foreclosure process automatically stops — immediately. Under a BK-13 plan, the homeowner must continue to make monthly mortgage payments to the lender, while paying any past due amounts to a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee. Litigation If you choose to sue your lender, a judge may grant you a preliminary injunction. This will prevent the lender from foreclosing on your property while the lawsuit is ongoing. Should you fail to win, however, the foreclosure process will continue. Short Sale If you owe more on your property than the current value of the property, a short sale may be an option. In a short sale, the lender agrees to take possession of the property and, in exchange, forgives all additional mortgage balances owed on the property. The borrower must be able to prove that they cannot afford to repay any additional loan balance. While a short sale is being negotiated, the foreclosure process will be postponed. After your lender files an NOD but before they schedule an auction, if you get an offer from a buyer, you lender must consider it. If they foreclose on your home, the lender is going to simply turn around and try to resell it; if you present them with a reasonable short sale offer, they may see it as saving them the time, effort and trouble of finding a qualified buyer in a soft market. So, if your home is on the market, continue to aggressively seek a buyer for it, even after your lender initiates the foreclosure process. Read our guide on How to Sell Your Home Fast When Foreclosure Looms for action steps you can take to unload your home fast, then make your best pitch as to why your lender should agree to the short sale. 1. Deed in Lieu. A deed in lieu of foreclosure is exactly what it sounds like. The homeowner facing foreclosure signs the deed to the home back over to the bank — voluntarily. This sounds like it would be a great option, but actually has the same impact on a homeowner’s credit that foreclosure does. Lenders are very reluctant to agree to take a home back through a deed in lieu of foreclosure for a number of reasons: They fear the homeowner will sue later alleging they didn’t understand what was happening, the lender must pay any second or third mortgages or home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) off before executing a deed in lieu, and the lender wants to be certain that the borrower’s financial distress is real. Allowing the foreclosure process to proceed is one way the lender can be sure the borrower is not faking poverty. As such, a deed in lieu of foreclosure is virtually never granted unless: foreclosure is imminent; the owner has had their home on the market for several months and been unable to sell it; there are few or no junior loans or liens the lender will have to pay off; the seller can document their financial hardship; and the seller initiates the process and documents the voluntary nature of their request for a deed in lieu. Even when all these factors are present, many lenders will not agree to a deed in lieu, but it is worth a try! 2. Assumption/Lease-Option. Most loans these days are no longer assumable. The average mortgage now contains a “due on sale” clause by which the borrower agrees to pay the loan off entirely if and when they transfer the property. However, if you are facing foreclosure, you might be able to persuade your lender to modify your loan, delete this clause and allow another buyer to assume your loan. The lender may want to assess the new buyer’s qualifications, but it can be a win-win-win option for all. You might be able to negotiate a down payment from the buyer which you can use to pay off your outstanding past due mortgage balance. In a lease-option scenario, the buyer becomes your tenant, and you continue owning the property until the buyer has saved enough down payment money, improved their credit sufficiently or sold their other home. In some situations, the buyer will make a one-time, lump option payment upfront, paying you to obtain the option to purchase your home. You can apply the option payment to bringing your mortgage current. Then, the buyer will make lease payments monthly which you, the seller, then apply to your mortgage. To successfully use a lease-option to stop the foreclosure process, you must negotiate lease payments that cover most or all of your mortgage payment, property tax and insurance obligations — enough that you can make up any difference and still pay to live somewhere else. Talk to an AttorneyIf you’re facing an imminent foreclosure sale and considering any of the options discussed in this article, it is strongly recommended that you consult with a local foreclosure attorney or bankruptcy attorney immediately. To get information about different loss mitigation options, you should also consider talking to a HUD-approved housing counselor. Consequences of ForeclosureThe main problem with going through foreclosure is, of course, the fact that you will be forced out of your home. You’ll need to find another place to live, and the process is stressful (among other things) for you and your family. Foreclosure can also be expensive. As you stop making payments, your lender will charge penalties and legal fees, and you might pay legal fees out of pocket to fight foreclosure. Any fees added to your account will increase your debt to the lender, and you might still owe money after your home is taken and sold if the sales proceeds are not sufficient (known as a deficiency). Foreclosure will also hurt your credit scores. Your credit reports will show the foreclosure, which credit scoring models will see as a negative signal. You’ll have a hard time borrowing to buy another home for several years (although you might be able to get certain government loans within one to two years), and you’ll also have more difficulty getting affordable loans of any kind. Your credit scores can also affect other areas of your life, such as (in limited cases) your ability to get a job or your insurance rates. Foreclosure Lawyer Free ConsultationWhen you need to stop a foreclosure in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
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What Needs To Be Done If I Have Full Custody For the Father To Sign Over Rights? via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/how-to-stop-or-postpone-a-foreclosure-sale-date/
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Borrowers affect their creditors’ position not only through their investments but by changes they make in the indebtedness itself, whether increases or decreases. Because borrowing increases risk, borrowers’ attitudes toward additional borrowing are similar to their attitudes toward risks in investments. Once they are in debt, borrowers may want to increase their debt even more and to resist decreasing their indebtedness. Unsecured cards are the most popular credit cards. They don’t require you to have any collateral. Credit is issued based upon your credit worthiness. Lenders will look at factors such as your credit score and income in determining how much credit to grant. If you decide to get an unsecured card, start with a low credit limit like $500. Again, try to pay off charges in full each month to avoid interest charges. If you’re unable to pay off the balance each month, make a plan to clear it within a certain time frame. Chapter 7 BankruptcyCredit cards are a form of revolving credit, which means there are no fixed payments or loan periods. If you have no balance, you owe nothing. But if you have a lot of charges, you could pay for several years before eliminating your debt.Credit card companies use compounding interest. That means unless you pay your balance in full, interest charges are added each month to what you owe, and interest is calculated on that new balance. In other words, you are paying interest on interest.Let’s say you have a card with 30% interest, and this interest is compounded daily. This means that for each day it carries a balance, you will be charged 0.08% per day. Sounds like no big deal, right? But as new charges are added, the credit card company will compound more interest on top of that. Before long, you could end up with a huge bill. Consider a $1,000 credit card balance with a 30% interest rate. If you make just a minimum payment of $30 per month, it will take 6 years to pay off your debt. One way to keep interest from building is to avoid the trap of the monthly minimum. Paying that amount — just 2% to 4% of your total balance — can make you feel like you owe less than you really do. Chapter 13 BankruptcyRemember, credit cards shouldn’t be used to extend your income. If you keep coming up short on money to pay for your charges, stop using that card until you get your finances under control. If you use credit cards for luxuries, such as vacations or holiday gifts, be sure to have a plan for paying off the balance quickly. When you pay more than the monthly minimum, you are paying down the principal balance of the loan and freeing yourself from the cycle of debt. The lower the principal balance, the less interest the credit card company charges. Here’s another way to look at it: The quicker you pay off your balance, the more you save, the more you win. When you receive a credit card in the mail, you’ll receive a document that spells out the terms, as well. That’s the disclosure statement. Hold on to it. It goes over the benefits and penalties of your credit card. Remember to read the fine print. There you’ll find information about how much your interest rate may increase if you pay your bill late. Chapter 11 BankruptcyNot everyone earns before buying. Most of what we purchase we finance through borrowing. The earning comes later. Nearly all Americans borrow to buy their homes, and most automobiles are bought on time. Add to this the credit card balances, finance company loans, department store debts, and debts to individuals, and you begin to get an idea of the pervasiveness of household debt. We “sign and travel” for vacations, charge the wife’s birthday present, and put the health club membership on plastic. About one-third of the nation’s population describe themselves as either heavily or moderately in financial debt, one-third report being slightly in debt, and only one-third report no financial (that is, excluding home mortgage) debts at all. As I write these words, the fraction of Americans’ disposable income that goes toward debt servicing continues to rise; it has now reached 18 percent. The total amount of debt held by the average household has increased relentlessly for decades, and it now equals just about what that household makes in any given year. TILA covers all consumer credit (not commercial or agricultural credit) in amounts of $50,000 or less plus other credit transactions of any size involving consumers if secured by real property (mortgage credit). Besides mandating specific disclosures, the act and its implementing regulation, Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Regulation Z, 12 CFR Part 226, specify precise definitions and calculation methods to assure uniformity. The act also contains some nondisclosure regulations of creditor behavior, often referred to as behavioral or substantive regulations, but disclosures have always been its main purpose. The key substantive provision in the original act involved the right of rescission on non purchase-money credit to consumers secured by the consumers’ principal dwelling. This provision allows borrowers on a second lien and all who refinance a mortgage loan to rescind or cancel the loan within a three-day period after receiving all the disclosures. Chapter 12 BankruptcySince 1968, amendments to TILA have added additional substantive requirements, particularly in the areas of credit card solicitations, credit card billing, credit card repricing, and credit secured by dwellings. Open-end credit, such as typical credit card credit and check overdraft credit that permits multiple credit advances and variable payments, has its own set of disclosure requirements, found in subgroup 1C, “Open End Consumer Credit, Including Credit Card Accounts.” Section 1D, “Open-End Consumer Credit Secured by Consumer’s Dwelling,” in turn, contains the requirements for open-end mortgage credit. The open end credit lists are also lengthy, requiring disclosures of individual transactions under the open-end plan, outstanding balances, finance charges, fees, APRs, and error-resolution policies. An amendment in 1988 substantially expanded disclosure requirements for credit card applications and solicitations, extending requirements to solicitations as well as at account opening and with periodic billing statements. Any changes in terms generate further special disclosure requirements. Newly enacted Amendments to Regulation AA (“Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices”) and Regulation Z in December 2008 cover many practices in the credit card area and substantially rearrange many of the required disclosures. Bigger DebtsIt makes a difference, of course, whether the debt is $50,000 or $50 million and how large it is relative to the total assets and debts of the borrower and the lender. A debt of $50,000 is typically the borrower’s problem, whereas a $50 million debt is likely to become the lender’s problem.3 If the borrower is in default on a $50 million debt, the lender may tread carefully so as to avoid destroying the borrower’s business, into which the $50 million had been invested. If the lender treads too carefully, however, he or she may find it difficult to be paid back. Chapter 9 BankruptcyWhen lenders do go to court, the consequences depend on the law, which differs across countries and periods. In ancient Rome, the property of a defaulting borrower was taken, and the borrower and his family could be sold into slavery. Shakespeare’s merchant of Venice had a claim to a pound of the borrower’s flesh. In the Middle Ages, defaulting borrowers could be placed in debtors’ prison until their families paid the debt. Putting defaulting debtors into prison was common in many countries until well into the nineteenth century. In the United States, the federal government and most states abolished this practice in the 1830s. Default and bankruptcy are disruptive. Under today’s laws, they are less disruptive than in ancient Rome or in the Middle Ages, but most people still strongly prefer to avoid bankruptcy if possible. For a business, the disruptions caused by default can be fatal. If a creditor seizes a truck or a machine, the business’s activities may come to a halt. When the business has several creditors, the danger is greater because the creditors may have competing claims. Each one may want to seize an asset before the other creditors. In this situation, declaring bankruptcy may be a way to prevent creditors from fighting each other under the law of the jungle and letting the business go down the drain. If you are considering bankruptcy, consult with an experienced Morgan Utah bankruptcy lawyer. Disruptions from default and bankruptcy affect not just the borrowers and the lenders who are involved. They may also affect the borrowers’ employees, their suppliers, and their customers. Before creditors take action, the law allows borrowers to declare bankruptcy. In that case, a bankruptcy court or trustee becomes involved. Traditionally, the purpose of bankruptcy was to prevent individual creditors from taking actions that would end up harming not just the borrower but also the other creditors. Sometimes bankruptcy may be your best option. Speak to an experienced Morgan Utah bankruptcy lawyer. For some industries, such as airlines, the bankruptcy process works quite smoothly. An airline typically continues its operation or is acquired by another airline, and the process allows renegotiation of labor and other contracts in light of the new circumstances. For other industries, the process works less well. Negotiations may involve too many parties. Each party may engage in brinkmanship in order to receive a good part of the spoils. Given the problems that brought the firm into bankruptcy, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the firm’s prospects or the value of its assets. The discussions and negotiations can drag on for a long time, particularly when they involve many different creditors and different priorities and interests. During this time the firm may be unable to compete properly in the market and attract or retain customers.13 For example, car buyers might avoid buying cars from a manufacturer in bankruptcy or about to go into bankruptcy, fearing that, if the firm is liquidated, buying spare parts or being able to resell the cars might become difficult. This type of reaction in itself can be a reason that eventually the firm will not be able to continue in business and must be liquidated. Although they are disruptive, bankruptcies and liquidations should be seen as normal occurrences in a market economy. All are free to run businesses the way they like under the law. Their business strategies may fail, but if they are successful, they can provide a basis for innovations, growth, and new employment. No one knows in advance which entrepreneurs, firms, and strategies will be successful and which ones will fail. This will be determined in the market. Along with the successful firms, therefore, there will always be unsuccessful firms as well. Bankruptcy and liquidation are ways to deal with these firms, repairing some and eliminating others, so as to prevent more resources from being wasted on them. Only a Liquidity ProblemBorrowers who cannot pay their debts often want creditors and others to think that they have only a temporary problem and will be able to pay their debts later. This will help borrowers to avoid default and bankruptcy and might allow them to continue to borrow or find ways to fund additional investments. A temporary inability to pay is sometimes called a liquidity problem. Morgan Utah Bankruptcy Lawyer Free ConsultationWhen you need legal help with a bankruptcy case in Morgan Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
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What Assets Can I Keep In Chapter 7? What Needs To Be Done If I Have Full Custody For The Father To Sign Over Rights? via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/bankruptcy-lawyer-morgan-utah/ For the sake of beholding and living the beautiful, people tend to marry their lovers. So that they could rivet this life with another soul altogether. But things does not go well as we planned. Sometimes there are disputes between these two souls which can be tolerated further ahead in life. So, they decide to leave this relation for the sake of their own good and other one. They divorce each other. This may free both of these souls. But there might be third, or forth or may be fifth soul which are still linked. Divorce can not disconnect them. Since they are offspring to begin with. This create tension between the ex-husband and ex-wife. In these kind of cases, it may be decided how much time one will parent will have to have child. Addendum to that, it will also be decided that which parent will be the primary care taker. In few cases even unmarried parents, and relatives may even ask for the custody of child. Since in normal cases they both will want to take care of their kids at their own residence and decide themselves the future of kids interruption coming from the other parent. Court always decides for the best interest of the Kid. First of all we all should know the basics about the custody. The legal meaning of the word “Custody” is right to make decision for the care and welfare of child specially in terms of education, health care, and religious training, The parents who have the custody of child or children are termed as “Custodial Parent” and in most cases he or she is the who rears the child most of the time. But the law is not flexible for giving custody to one over than the other one, nor there decisions biased over the fact that gender do matter. No, they don’t matter here in the eyes of the law. Then about those who do not have any kind of custody over their children, court allows them accessible time to meet their kids and spent time with them. The legal term for that is “Parenting Time”. Addendum to that parents who happen to have no role in custody are termed as “non-custodial parents”. These two issues—Parenting time and custody arises— whenever husband and wife ask the court to untie the knot of wedding (legal Separation). This does not mean this issue can not rise sans these circumstances. Custody issue can even rise when the parents are not even married or they don’t live together anymore. Even after the husband and wife has gotten divorce, the issue does go away easily. There is always the one parent who has issues with rearing of child by the other parent. They simply think, they are the best in the interest child’s better future. The issue also elongates further to the time period about how much time child will stay with non-custodial parent. This custodial and non-custodial can be made as per parents themselves but if they are having disputes or they just agree with each other, then court orders that which parent will be holder major share of time with his or her child and who will be non-custodial parent. This can be further discussed by the parents themselves, but the decision made by the court is full and final in case they disagree during the discussion. There are two types of custodies; sole custody and joint custody. Sole Custody gives only one parent the power of making major decisions related to the child. Whilst on the other hand, joint custody is about making major decisions together but to get this thing in the work, both parents are asked about how they will manage this. They demand a plan for that. This is also termed as “ Joint Legal custody”. But that does not necessarily means both parents will have equal share having the kid with themselves. However, there are more two types of sole custodies; Sole legal custody and Sole physical custody. Previous one is al about the major decisions regarding to the child as we have mentioned already, the latter one is about keeping the child with themselves. As per court decision usually one parent the sole legal custody whilst sole physical custody is shared by both of them. And sometimes it also happens when one parents has the sole physical custody whilst both of these parents relish the sol legal custody together. Rarely court decides to give all the sole legal custody or sole physical custody to one parent unless the other parent is to totally unfit for the option. Like parent having history of violence, or he or she is alcohol or drug addict or they neglect the child are considered unfit for the custody. These situation may also lead to the “termination of parental rights”. This means parent is no more legal parent of the child anymore. Parent—with terminated parent rights—have no relationship with his or her own child let alone the rearing of the child. Parent do not get any non-custodial time for meeting with his or her child apart from that even his or her money is not asked for child support. Their name is immediately removed from the birth certificate and they are no more asked for any views in case if the child is going to be adopted. This sentence is also termed as “civil death penalty”. Court does not go for this unless there is solid reason for it. Apart from being drug or alcoholic addiction and violence, Token care, sexual assault on child, or there are serious possibilities of child getting physically mentally and emotional tortured by the parents , and have even everlasting fights between the parent may get the court to make this kind of decision. As already mentioned lots of the states often look after the best interest of child. Firs of all, for getting the full custody by any parent requires a pathway to follow. Full custody is often referred to the wants of parents from the custody. Filing for it is first process of sole custody. It will even be more better if the other parent agrees to it. This not save time, money, but stressful and angry moments too as the full blown trials are pretty much hectic and may cause anxiety. Filing for the custody even if u are not married is as similar as you and your partner are just divorced. There is no main difference. The requirements for both of these aforesaid and latter case are same. Usually courts go for the joint custody. Ordinarily this is bad idea as both of these parents does not go along and this effects the child mentally and socially. So to gain the sole custody remains the only option. This is what want-to-be custodial has to prove in the court that he or she is the only best interest of the child rather than going for joint custody as the consequences for the child are disturbing. But sole custody will placate the life of the child. If this is not proved in court. Court usually goes for the joint custody. There are few scenario that produce better chance of winning the sole custody. • The other parent is financially weak and could not bear even his or her own expenses. • The other parent has been failed watch the child properly let alone the part of raising the child. • The child has been left alone, neglected, and abused by the other parent. • You—as the parent—as has more flexible hours as compared to the other parent, so you are more likely to take care more than him or her. • The other parents is sheer threat to the child’s wellbeing. • The other parent is not selected by the child (here child should be old enough for this scenario to work). • You—as the parent—are better equipped to quench the special needs of the child as compared to the other parent. • The child rivets better bond with you and is having a thriving care from you, as a parent. • The other parent has the lesser involvement in the child’s life but you were the primary caretaker from the beginning. • You—as the parent—ensures the better future of child in perspective of education as compared to the other one. • The other parent could not provide stable home environment such as food, home, and clothing. • The parent has some serious mental or health issues. Addendum to that he or she is also alcoholic or drug addict. These things interrupt in rearing the child as they should be. If any of these above are present in any ones case, the likelihood of getting the sole custody increases but again it totally depends on the judgment of judge or jury sitting one the chairs of the court. At first mothers used to get favors from the court as in child custody in many states. But now court are not gender biased. They seek the person or persons in which child could have better life and rivet full of it. And then they simply go for it. But this is how they get the custody from the other parents. In the case of mothers, this is how a father has to sign over his child in her custody as the court orders are absolute. Divorce and these proceedings of the custody can be very stressful, and they might some times steel the nerves of one’s fear that one may go for extreme approaches. There are some cause where these kind of situations had birthed. It is termed as “Malicious Parent Syndrome”. It is crucial here to note that this syndrome has not yet recognized as a mental syndrome as it triggers extreme behaviors so proponents are still working on research. Notwithstanding when this syndrome comes out of any parent, other parent not only tries to get the culprit his or her punishment but sometimes he or she also goes for the sole custody of the child. Malicious Parent syndrome is characterized by the four aspects as give below. Someone tangled with malicious syndrome:• Tries to alienate the other parents by the snatching the child from him or her. This may be done by involving other people or even court. • Denies his child visitation hours let alone meeting with the other parent. He or she does not even involve himself or herself in child school or sports activities. • May involve lying to child and even violate the laws. • Is not any kind of mental patient so these above mentioned actions could be justified by these. There are some case in which actions done during the suffering from malicious parent syndrome may be seen as criminal acts in the eyes of law. Such as beating of the other parent, depriving the child form the basic necessities as food, water, shelter, and clothes are consider as criminal acts. Latter one is clearly child abuse, and for that there are strict laws. In case of when the parents are not married yet—which means there is not father name in child’s certificate. The law clearly states that the child will stay with the mother unless the father goes for the legal paternity. For paternity, father has to file the affidavit of him telling the court that he is the father of the child and this affidavit also requires the signature from the mother. In case of refusal, father can also demand the DNA test for the sake assurance ordered by the court. Before court decides it is usually child gets to stay with the parent who has been looking after the child more than the other parent before any paternity time is decided by the court. After the decision of the court, the parents have to follow the order as they decide the best for the child’s interest. Free Consultation with Child Custody LawyerIf you have a question about child custody question or if you need help with custody, please call Ascent Law at (801) 676-5506. We will help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
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Divorce Lawyer Salt Lake City Utah Utah Supreme Court Case January 2019 via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/what-needs-to-be-done-if-i-have-full-custody-for-the-father-to-sign-over-rights/ Speak to an experienced Layton Utah family lawyer if you wish to hire an expert witness for your family law court case. The expert witness should be thoroughly informed about the specific facts and issues in a legal case, so that the testimony can be proffered in a competent and professional manner. The expert is able to form opinions based on known facts and objective evidence, not only on theory. Testimony should be presented in a confident but not arrogant or condescending way. A glib and witty style may impress some courtroom intellectuals but would not be well received by the average juror. Although often hired by one side in a legal matter, the expert witness does not serve as an advocate, as do the attorneys involved, but remains completely objective and impartial. Having strong convictions based on a professional analysis is a good thing; arguing to win a case for the client or attorney is not. The expert’s role is to help the court understand the case and not to decide its outcome. The expert witness is able to communicate opinions in a clear, succinct, and persuasive manner, while avoiding technical terminology and jargon. The expert can answer questions directly and completely without volunteering unsolicited information. When faced with a challenging cross-examination, the expert remains calm and responds constructively to vigorous inquiry. Even when the questioning turns hostile, the expert witness demeanor should remain polite and nonargumentative. Expert witnesses often are ignorant of courtroom dynamics and the rules of courtroom performance. Hence it is important that your expert witness speaks to an experienced Layton Utah family lawyer to know the rules and procedure. These rules cover who can he spoken to, by whom, when, and how. They also structure what can and what cannot be said in court. In an adversarial situation, these requirements lead attorneys to manipulate the rules to present evidence in support of their case, to discredit the evidence of the other side, and to prevent the other attorney from doing the same. Attorneys have different styles just as experts do. Some are principled bargainers who attempt to negotiate a fair agreement. A few are soft bargainers and like to avoid conflict and risk. Others are hard bargainers who have winning as their primary goal and rarely negotiate except in an aggressive manner. Regardless of the opposing attorney’s style in cross-examining an expert witness, the expert should keep several points in mind: 1. The expert witness should be prepared to state professional qualifications clearly and in a well-articulated voice. These include educational level, clinical experience, experience as an expert witness, professional organizations to which the professional belongs or in which he or she holds office, membership on any local committees (especially when they may have to do with the case), and any other relevant information. The opposing counsel may challenge the credentials, but the judge will determine the witness’s status as an expert. A licensed psychologist in clinical practice generally will be considered qualified to serve as an expert, or it is unlikely that he or she would be on the witness stand. 2. Professional dress is a requirement to avoid offending judges or suggesting lack of respect for the court, as well as to protect professional credibility. 3. The witness should speak slowly and clearly, avoiding jargon. This is an area of criticism of attorneys as well as expert witnesses. One should avoid continually defining words, or worse, ignoring the need for their definition. 4. Joking or wisecracking should be avoided, even if the attorney does this. The witness should be relaxed and unintimidated but should show that he or she takes the role of expert witness seriously. 5. The witness should address the judge as “Your Honor” and learn the names of all attorneys, so that responses to questions may be prefaced with the correct name. 6. The witness may restate an attorney’s questions, changing small words he or she may have used to get the witness to contradict an earlier statement. The question may then be answered as restated. 7. The witness should feel free to take notes and/or books on the stand and should not be afraid to use them. However, he or she should be familiar with the location of the information to avoid delays and fumbling. Also, anything taken on the stand may be entered as an exhibit, so only those items should be taken that the witness would not be uncomfortable having the court see. 8. If an attorney asks a multiple-part question and wants a “yes” or “no” answer, the witness should not be afraid to say that the question cannot be answered with a simple ” yes ” or “no.” 9. At the end of testimony, if an expert witness feels that an important piece of information has not been revealed, he or she may request of the judge an opportunity to present evidence felt to be vital to the court’s decision. In family court, this may well be permitted. 10. If asked about his or her fee, the witness should not be apologetic. Expert witnesses are paid for their time, not their support. Fees for court should be charged at the same hourly rate as fees for office visits. It is a wise professional who reads as much as possible concerning courtroom etiquette and procedure before going on the witness stand. A valid evaluation and a valuable opinion could well be lost in attorney manipulation. Being prepared helps to ensure that such damage is kept to a minimum in the best interests of the child in a custody dispute. It is perfectly acceptable for your expert witness to meet with your attorney before going to court so that you can be apprised of the critical issues in the case and so that the attorney is thoroughly familiar with your testimony. The exert witness should assist the attorney with the kinds of questions that should be asked in order to elicit his opinion most effectively. The expert witness should also anticipate the challenges that may be made to his opinion and help the attorney in determining how these may be dealt with during direct examination. Child custody disputes demand the assessment of multiple relevant factors. The expert considers not only the obvious parent-child relationships and the personalities of each family member, but the evaluation also considers financial matters, living conditions, relatives and support groups, and educational opportunities. If any of these elements has been overlooked, the attorney will probably explore this oversight in cross-examination.A psychiatric disorder does not, per se, indicate mental incompetency. Thus, a psychotic, a neurotic, or an alcoholic can draw up valid wills. The critical factor is whether the person, at the time of making the will, has sufficient capacity to understand the extent of his or her property and consequences of his or her will. Rules of EvidenceRule 801 (c) of the Federal Rules of Evidence defines hearsay as a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Rule 802 provides that hearsay is generally inadmissible. However, Rule 803 enumerates twenty-four exceptions that would allow hearsay evidence to be admitted. Rule 804 addresses hearsay exceptions applicable only when the declarant is unavailable. This rule covers unavailability due to (1) exemption to testify for a reason deemed valid, (2) refusal to testify, (3) inability to remember specifics required for testifying; (4) death or illness in the family, (5) inability to locate the desired witness, or (6) failure to compel the individual to testify. Former testimony, statements made under belief of impending death, and statements against interest are also admissible as exceptions to the hearsay rule. If an expert is withdrawn prior to trial, the prior deposition testimony of that witness is most often inadmissible as hearsay evidence. A party must be able to withdraw experts from participating in a case without fear that an abandoned expert’s deposition testimony will be admitted into evidence at trial as an “admission.” The significant precedents that affect expert witnessing-including Frye, Daubert, Joiner, and Kumho-have shaped the use and solidified the value of expert testimony in the American judicial system. Understanding these precedents and the rules of hearsay are fundamental in becoming an effective expert witness. Under Daubert, federal courts were given far greater flexibility in determining the admissibility of expert scientific testimony. Rather than looking to the scientific community to determine whether scientific evidence was sufficiently sound to be considered by the trier of fact, a judge is expected to screen scientific evidence to determine its relevance and reliability. While the court is free to consider whether the methodologies used by the expert have been generally accepted, the court is also expected to inquire into the substance of those methodologies. In part, this change evolved as an outgrowth of the flexibility given to judges in the Federal Rules of Evidence to admit or exclude testimony based on their own discretion. The testimony of expert witnesses is intended to clarify and interpret facts so the jury can understand the relevant scientific or technical information and thereby render a decision. Federal Rule of Evidence 702 states that reliable expert testimony must be based on scientific fact and not subjective belief or opinion. Rule 702 further requires that a valid scientific relationship needs to be established between the evidence to be offered and the issue to be tried. If this relationship can be reasonably established, the expert testimony is admissible as evidence. Testimony that is not relevant does not assist the jury in better understanding the evidence or in ultimately rendering a just verdict. Daubert suggested two additional considerations for determining the admissibility of expert testimony. The first concerns the extent to which the theory or technique used in the expert testimony relies on the expert’s subjective interpretation. The testifying expert must show that the basis for his or her testimony is objective. This can be established by presenting peer reviewed literature showing that the evidence is based on unbiased and objective methodology, logic, and assumptions. Additionally, the expert’s field of expertise must be recognized as a reliable discipline among other experts, regardless of degrees and experience. The second consideration concerns the application of the theory or technique outside the context of litigation. In the case of a new theory, the expert must establish that it can be objectively substantiated through independent testing or application. The decision of the trial judge to admit or exclude expert testimony may come at various times in the litigation. During the pre-trial process, either party may file motions to exclude expert testimony by comparing expert opinions to the Daubert factors. In response to pretrial motions, the judge has several options. First, he or she can rule on the reliability, relevance, and admissibility of the proposed testimony based strictly upon the arguments of the attorneys and supporting material provided to the court. The court may also hold a hearing prior to trial where the expert must testify to matters that address the Daubert factors; this testimony is then considered along with the oral arguments. If the court wishes additional guidance, the judge may appoint independent experts to review the motions and make recommendations. The judge can also allow the case to proceed and decide during trial. Speak to an experienced Layton Utah family lawyer before you chose an expert witness. Choosing an expert requires consideration of the following: 1. Qualification. First and foremost, an expert must be able to demonstrate specialized skill or knowledge acquired through an appropriate mix of experience or education. Recognized expertise in the subject can be credibly substantiated by the authoring of peer-reviewed papers and books, recognition by peers for contributions to the field over an extended period of time, or other relevant activities recognized and accepted by other experts in the field. 2. Ability to Communicate. To be effective, an expert witness must have the ability to clearly and persuasively explain and communicate complex theories and results through explanation, simplification, and clarification, and by giving examples and analogies. 3. Litigation Experience. Through actual litigation experience, experts learn what is expected of them as well as what to expect in the various steps of the litigation process. Additionally, lawyers are inclined to depend on experts who understand the litigation process and are able to withstand rigorous critique of their testimony by opposing attorneys hoping to discredit the expert. 4. Commitment. An expert must be able and willing to commit the time and energy needed to adequately conduct research and to formulate defensible opinions. 5. Proximity. Experts in the vicinity of the trial location are often more convenient and less expensive due to the absence of travel costs. On the other hand, experts from faraway places may be more impressive to a jury, particularly if the faraway place is a prestigious university or research institute. 6. Cost. The fee of an expert is a significant variable. A proven expert with a highly effective track record may cost more per hour, but may be far more attractive in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and overall impact. Layton Utah Family Law Attorney Free ConsultationWhen you need legal help with family law in Layton Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you with child custody, divorce, adoption, child support, alimony and much more.
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8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506 via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/family-lawyer-layton-utah/ Individuals who petition for financial protection look for security from their loan bosses for the obligations they have caused. The U.S. Constitution gives this capacity to the government, and the central government has set up U.S. Bankruptcy Courts to deal with bankruptcy procedures the nation over. At the point when an individual petitions for financial protection security, the individual in question can hope to need to turn over a sizeable part of their property to an alleged bankruptcy domain. A bankruptcy trustee deals with this bankruptcy home, offering property to fund-raise to satisfy a borrower’s lenders. Be that as it may, a bankruptcy borrower does not really need to turn over everything to the bankruptcy domain. In a Chapter 7 liquidation case, the borrower needs to surrender certain property to the bankruptcy trustee. Account holders, regardless of whether they are organizations or people, are regularly legitimately worried about what property they will be permitted to keep and what they should surrender. Bankruptcy law enables account holders to keep a specific measure of property in the wake of experiencing bankruptcy procedures. This is classified “excluded” property – it is absolved from the bankruptcy home. Property that can’t be exempted is, suitably, called “non-excluded” property. For the most part, a bankruptcy account holder can absolved a specific measure of his or her property during bankruptcy. Whenever done right, this can possibly spare the greater part of the property of somebody experiencing bankruptcy. Property that is absolved can for the most part be known as the “necessities of present day life.” This by and large incorporates the kind of things that are vital for living and working. Bankruptcy law is worried about getting account holders out of pounding obligation and returning them on their feet. Taking everything from them is counterproductive, and bankruptcy law perceives this reality. Non-excluded property for the most part covers things that fall outside of the necessities for living and working. Court decisions and general practice experience have built up a general thought of what sorts of property are excluded and non-absolved. The following are instances of property that a Chapter 7 account holder will as a rule need to surrender (“non-excluded” property), and property that the indebted person may generally keep (“absolved” property). Property That Is Not Exempt Things that the indebted person for the most part needs to surrender include: • Costly melodic instruments, except if the indebted person is an expert performer • Accumulations of stamps, coins, and other important things • Family legacies • Money, financial balances, stocks, securities, and different ventures • A subsequent vehicle or truck • A second or getaway home • Property That Is Exempt • Excluded property (things that an account holder may generally keep) can include: • Engine vehicles, up to a specific worth • Sensibly essential dress • Sensibly essential family unit merchandise and decorations • Family unit apparatuses • Gems, up to a specific worth Benefits of bankruptcy exempts are as follow: • A segment of value in the indebted person’s home • Instruments of the indebted person’s exchange or calling, up to a specific worth. • A bit of unpaid however earned wages • Open advantages, including open help (welfare), standardized savings, and joblessness pay, gathered in a financial balance. The U.S. Bankruptcy Code records 21 distinct classifications of obligations that can’t be released. Maybe the most widely recognized obligations that can’t be released under any conditions are tyke backing and support. In the event that you document for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you will likewise keep on owing any apartment suite or participation affiliation expenses, alongside whatever other obligations that were not released in an earlier bankruptcy. Understudy credits are famously hard to release; it is just conceivable on the off chance that you can exhibit undue hardship that is perpetual or expected to keep going for a lion’s share of the life of the note. Notwithstanding, a 2014 controlling in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals utilized a progressively indulgent limit in releasing a Webster University understudy’s obligation. You can’t release personal expense obligations without an exceptional exclusion, which must be gotten by requesting of the bankruptcy court and clarifying why you merit alleviation. Lenders have some capacity to prevent certain obligations from being released and the capacity to movement the court to allow them help from the programmed remain that keeps them from seeking after accumulation action. Individual advances from companions, family and managers fall under basic classifications of obligation that can be released on account of bankruptcy. A release discharges singular borrowers from the lawful commitment to pay already existing obligations. Different kinds of dischargeable obligation incorporate Mastercard charges, accounts from accumulation offices, doctor’s visit expenses, past due service bills, and shamed checks and common court expenses not regarded deceitful. Dischargeable obligation likewise incorporates business obligations, cash owed by rent understandings, lawyer expenses not related with youngster backing and provision grants, rotating charge accounts, Social Security and veterans help excessive charges, and in uncommon cases, understudy loans. Personal credits from companions, family and bosses fall under normal classifications of obligation that can be released on account of bankruptcy. A release discharges singular borrowers from the legitimate commitment to pay already existing obligations. Different sorts of dischargeable obligation incorporate Visa charges, accounts from gathering organizations, doctor’s visit expenses, past due service bills, and disrespected checks and common court charges not considered deceitful. Dischargeable obligation additionally incorporates business obligations, cash owed by rent understandings, lawyer expenses not related with youngster backing and support grants, spinning charge accounts, Social Security and veterans help excessive charges, and in uncommon cases, understudy credits. The Utah bankruptcy exemptions chart, see below, details the property you can exempt or protect from creditors when you file bankruptcy in Utah. You may exempt any property that falls into one of the exemptions categories below, up to the dollar amount listed. You will be able to kept this exempted property after you file bankruptcy. Please note that there are certain debts which you will not be able to erase in bankruptcy. In exemption limit applies to any equity you have in the property. Equity is the difference between the value of the property and what is owed on the property. For example, a car valued at $5000 with a loan of $4500 has an equity value of only $500. If the property is secured by a loan, such as a car or home, and you are current on the payments and the equity is covered by your exemptions, you may elect to keep making payments on the loan and keep this property through the bankruptcy. If all the equity is not covered by your exemptions the trustee may elect to liquidate this asset and distribute the proceeds. Generally, in this case, you would be entitled to the value of your exemption in the asset as a cash payment. Bankruptcy law allows married couples filing jointly to each claim a full set of exemptions, unless otherwise noted. To keep non-exempt property, a debtor must generally pay the trustee the value of the non-exempt property. When you file bankruptcy in Utah you may also use certain federal exemptions in addition to your Utah exemptions. Real property, mobile home or water rights to $10,000 (joint owners may double)—one must file homestead declaration before attempted sale of home. And disability, illness, medical or hospital benefits, fraternal benefit society benefits, and life insurance policy cash surrender value to $1500—Life insurance proceeds if beneficiary is insureds spouse or dependent, as needed for support. Alimony needed for support—child support and property of business partnership. Then there are personal property such as: animals, books & musical instruments to $500 total, artwork depicting, or done by, family member, and bed, bedding, carpets, washer & dryer, and burial plot along with clothing (cannot claim furs or jewelry), Food to last 3 months. Furnishings & appliances to $500,Health aids needed, Heirloom or other sentimental item to $500, Motor Vehicle to $2,500, Personal injury recoveries for you or person you depended on, Proceeds for damaged exempt property, Refrigerator, freezer, microwave, stove & sewing machine, and Wrongful death recoveries for person you depended on. Addendum to that Tools of Trade that are exempted are as follow: Implements, books & tools of trade to $5,000, Military property of National Guard member, and Motor vehicle to $3,00. Minimum 75% of earned but unpaid wages; bankruptcy judge may authorize more for low-income debtors In a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Case, all of a Debtor’s non-exempt property becomes the property of the bankruptcy estate at the time of filing and may be sold by the bankruptcy trustee. The sale proceeds are then distributed among the Debtor’s creditors. Exempt property is protected property. Under Federal and State exemption laws, certain assets are protected from collection by Creditors and from a Bankruptcy Trustee in a Chapter 7 case. In addition, exempt property is relevant in formulating a Chapter 13 Plan and calculating the required return to unsecured Creditors. An initial inquiry for all individuals contemplating bankruptcy is “Which State’s exemptions apply to my case?” Exemptions which apply to a Debtor’s case are based on the law of the State where the debtor was domiciled for the 730 days (2 years) prior to the date of filing the bankruptcy case. If you did not reside in a single State during the two years prior to filing, the exemptions are determined by the State where you were domiciled for the majority of the 180 days that preceded the 730-day period. Section 522(b). Section 522(b) also provides that if the effect of the domiciliary requirement is to render the debtor ineligible for any exemption, the Federal exemptions would apply. The Utah Exemptions Act is set forth at Utah Code, Title 78, Chapter 23. The following is a brief summary of the most commonly claimed exemptions in this Statute. Please refer to the statute for a detailed analysis of the exemption(s) you seek to claim. The Homestead laws in the State of Utah are presently very favorable to Debtors. Individuals can claim a homestead exemption in their primary residence in the amount of $30,000 per person, and $5,000 per person if the property is not the primary residence of the individual. The homestead exemption is applied to home equity. Home equity is computed by deducting from the fair market value of the real property, the amounts of all outstanding mortgages and loans against such real property. Example: Your home is worth $100,000.00 and you have a first mortgage against your home in the amount of $40,000.00, and a home equity line of credit with a balance of $20,000.00. You therefore have $40,000.00 of equity in your home. If you are an individual debtor, your equity would not be fully exempt, and a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee could sell your property and distribute the sale proceeds among your Creditors. The full text of the Utah homestead exemption law is set forth at Utah Code Section 78b 5-503 and 504. Each individual is entitled to an exemption for one motor vehicle not exceeding $3,000 in value. If you are filing jointly with your spouse and you share one vehicle, you can each assert the vehicle exemption against the same vehicle. If the equity in the vehicle you share is not more than $6,000.00, it would be protected from bankruptcy. The vehicle exemption is applicable to motorcycles if the motorcycle is your primary means of transportation. In spite of the fact that the government bankruptcy code gives a rundown of exclusions, these exceptions are not accessible in Utah. Utah law expects you to utilize the exclusions found in state law – not the U.S. bankruptcy code. In spite of the fact that the government bankruptcy code gives a rundown of exclusions, these exceptions are not accessible in Utah. Utah law expects you to utilize the exclusions found in state law – not the U.S. bankruptcy code. Bankruptcy Attorney Free ConsultationWhen you need legal help with a bankruptcy in Utah, whether it is a chapter 7 bankruptcy, a chapter 13 case, a chapter 9, a chapter 11 or a chapter 12 bankruptcy, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.
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8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
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Probate Lawyer Woods Cross Utah via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/what-assets-can-i-keep-in-chapter-7/ Today to get a divorce all you need to do is get in touch with an experienced Salt Lake City divorce lawyer. The divorce law in Utah is very different from what it used to be in the past. The divorce procedure is described—and approved of, in a qualified way—in Deuteronomy. The grounds for divorce are that a husband find “something shameful” in his wife. In the Middle Ages the grounds for divorce were tightened considerably, making divorces almost impossible to obtain. People could get divorces of bed and board—what we today would call a separation. They would live apart but could not remarry. The tribulations of King Henry VIII led the English, in 1534, to allow individuals to appeal to the House of Lords for a divorce. This procedure was cumbersome, though, and it wasn’t until 1801 that a woman petitioned for a divorce. In 1857, England allowed courts to grant divorces, but this did not open the divorce floodgates: by 1886, British courts were granting only 400 divorces per year. (By way of contrast, in 1890, U.S. courts granted 33,461 divorces.) In the United States, divorce has been around since the Puritans. In 1639, James Luxford’s wife asked for a divorce because Luxford already had a wife. The Puritans had what were, for the time, rather liberal divorce laws. Acceptable grounds for divorce included female adultery, male cruelty, bigamy, desertion, failure to provide, and impotence. Divorce hearings, besides deciding whether a divorce would be granted, determined which party to the divorce had been responsible for the breakup of the marriage. The guilty party was fined, whipped, or put in the stocks. Puritans were also likely to forbid remarriage by the guilty party. Such a person had, after all, shown incompetence in matters matrimonial and had no business trying to form another family. In the early 1700s, Connecticut accepted the notion that when divorces happened, someone was to blame and should be punished, but added a unique twist: if both marriage partners were guilty, then no divorce would be granted. The implication is that in such cases, the appropriate punishment was for the partners to be forced to live with each other. By the 1830s, divorce was easier to get in America than in Europe, with some states having more liberal divorce laws than others. In Virginia in 1827, acceptable grounds for divorce included adultery, cruelty, and just cause of bodily fear. In South Carolina, on the other hand, divorce was impossible until after the Civil War. In the course of the nineteenth century, states kept adding to the list of acceptable grounds for divorce, sometimes with unintended results. Indiana accidentally turned itself into a divorce mecca when, in 1852, it allowed judges to grant divorces on grounds they found “proper.” This alone would have made Indiana a desirable place to get a divorce, but what really did the trick were three other features of Indiana law. First, Indiana had a minimal residency requirement. Indeed, your own affidavit was regarded as sufficient proof of residency, so that an unscrupulous person might establish his residency in Indiana without actually residing there. Second, Indiana law allowed notification of divorce proceedings to be served through publication. This meant that you could, by putting an ad in an Indiana newspaper—which people in other states and certainly in other countries would be unlikely to read—satisfy the law’s requirement that you inform all relevant parties of your intent to divorce. Third, under Indiana law, divorce decrees were irrevocable. In theory, a person could go to Indiana, declare residency, put an ad in a paper, and in short order be divorced. The spouse might not even find out about it until months later, and protests of unfairness would be met with the reply that the divorce was irrevocable. In 1873, Indiana tightened its divorce laws and thereby closed the Pandoras box it had inadvertently opened. This was Americas first encounter with “migratory divorces” on a grand scale. Indiana is not the only place to gain infamy for its divorce practices. Thereafter, Utah gained a reputation as a divorce mill, followed by the Dakotas, Oklahoma Territory, and of course Nevada. Migratory DivorceBy the beginning of the twentieth century, politicians were up in arms about interstate differences in divorce laws. One state, believing that marriages should be terminated only in extraordinary cases, might enact restrictive divorce laws only to see its citizens slip across the state line to obtain an easy divorce in the neighboring state. And then, adding insult to injury, the citizens in question might cross back, flaunt their divorce, and perhaps even remarry in their original state. Here in a nutshell is the (political) problem with migratory divorce. If people are allowed to migrate to obtain divorces, the divorce standards of the entire country will effectively be set by the state that is most liberal with respect to divorce. This state will tend to drag down the standards of the other states: they can either maintain their restrictive divorce laws and see them circumvented, or they can weaken them. This might be thought of as Gresham’s Law of Divorce. According to the original version of Gresham’s Law—found in economics texts—bad money will drive good money out of circula tion. (If you had two dimes in your pocket, one of which you knew to be 100 percent silver and the other of which you knew to be only 50 percent silver, you would spend the one with less silver and hoard the other. Others would reason similarly. The debased coin would circulate, the undebased coin would not.) In much the same way, Gresham’s Law of Divorce declares that liberal divorce laws in one state will tend to drive restrictive divorce laws out of the law books of surrounding states. Notice, too, that states that liberalize their divorce laws and become divorce meccas usually profit from doing so. Their hotels will be full, their tourist industry will thrive, and their divorce lawyers will enjoy boom times. The lobbying money spent by these prodivorce forces is unlikely to be matched by groups opposed to easy divorce. Thus, economic factors bring divorce meccas into existence and help them endure. There are two fairly obvious ways in which migratory divorces could be blocked, but both raise constitutional issues. The first is for the federal government to enact divorce laws, so that all states have the same standards for divorce. Then no advantage could be gained by crossing state lines to obtain a divorce. It is generally agreed that such laws would be an unconstitutional infringement by the federal government on the rights of states. Some attempts have been made to amend the Constitution in this respect, but to no avail. A second way to block migratory divorce is for states with restrictive divorce laws simply to refuse to accept divorces granted in states with more liberal laws. When states tried this, chaos resulted, with some states regarding a “divorced” couple as still legally married. In 1906 the Supreme Court settled the issue by ruling, in the case of Haddock v. Haddock, that a state could reject a divorce decree issued by a state that was not the couple’s marital domicile. In 1942 the Supreme Court modified this view in the case of Williams et al. v. North Carolina, which involved a man and woman from North Carolina who were married—but not to each other—and who ran off to Nevada to obtain divorces from their respective spouses. They subsequently got married and returned to North Carolina, where they found themselves charged with bigamy. The Supreme Court ruled that North Carolina had to accept the Nevada divorce, thus overturning Haddock v. Haddock. North Carolina kept pestering the couple, though, and questioned whether the couple’s six-week residence at the Alamo Auto Court (in Nevada) counted as a valid residence. The Supreme Court concluded that it did not. In short, states were required by the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution to accept the divorces granted in other states—but not always. The No-Fault Divorce RevolutionAfter World War II, divorces became easier to obtain. By the mid1960s, several states included- “living apart” among the acceptable grounds for divorce and specified the amount of time that a couple must live apart. Finally, in the late 1960s, even this almost groundless ground was dropped when California became the first state—indeed, the first place in the Western world—to adopt “no-fault” divorce. The “grounds” for a divorce became “irreconcilable differences” causing the “irremediable breakdown” of a marriage. What proof was required that irreconcilable differences existed or that a marriage had broken down irremediably? None, other than the declared opinion of one party to the marriage that they did and it had. Unilateral divorce tips the balance of power in favor of the person who wants out of a marriage. The person who is happy in the marriage must beg and compromise in an attempt to get the other to stay. Under traditional divorce laws, it was the person who wished to depart who needed the consent of the spouse and who therefore had to beg or compromise. By tipping the balance of power in favor of the person who wants out of the marriage, the unilateral nature of no-fault divorce laws increases the chance that a divorce will occur. Many people don’t understand this feature of no-fault divorce. When sociologist Lenore Weitzman interviewed divorce lawyers nearly fifteen years after the passage of no-fault, she found that they were still having to explain to their clients that it didn’t matter how rotten their ex-spouse had been. From the legal point of view, their spouse’s behavior was irrelevant to determining whether or not a divorce should be granted; and if a divorce was granted, the spouse’s behavior was irrelevant to determining how the couple’s property should be divided and whether the wife should get alimony. Under no-fault divorce laws, marital property is divided equally, and alimony is granted on the basis of need rather than on the basis of marital guilt. Thus, under no-fault divorce laws, you can violate your marriage vows and pay no price—or, at any rate, pay a far lower price than you would have had to pay under traditional divorce laws. Having an extramarital affair used to be an expensive undertaking: your exspouse could get revenge when it came time to divide the property or award alimony. Under no-fault divorce laws, you can be a blatantly unfaithful spouse and fare as well in a divorce as if you had been a perfect spouse. Not only were the grounds for divorce trivialized, but the divorce process itself was streamlined. A divorce might require only a few pages of paperwork and two minutes of court time—unless, that is, one chose the divorce-by-mail option, in which case no court appearances were necessary. Thus, in its most liberal form, no-fault divorce wasn’t that much different from the process used in the Middle East, where to obtain a divorce the man simply declares, “I divorce you.” How, one wonders, did no-fault come to happen? Where were the guardians of the family? Where were the political conservatives? One of the leading political conservatives, Ronald Reagan, was governor of California when that state triggered the no-fault revolution. Reagan and other conservatives backed the law because as originally proposed, the no-fault divorce law would have created a Family Court that would have attempted to reconcile marriages before granting a divorce. Conservatives liked this aspect of the law and thought it would help preserve the family and reduce California’s high divorce rate. At the last minute, though, the Family Court feature was removed from the law. What California ended up with was a law that made it easy for people to separate without first pushing them to reconcile. No-fault divorce did accomplish one of its original goals: it made the divorce process less acrimonious. In a traditional divorce the two parties typically battled each other, dragging out their spouse’s every fault, both real and imagined, for all the world to see. They declared emotional war on each other, and the legal system aided and abetted their acts of war. Under no-fault, though, it didn’t matter what your spouse had done to you. The courts no longer wanted to hear about it. California was not alone in making the move to no-fault. In 1971 the Supreme Court, in Boddie v. Connecticut, ruled that divorce is a citizen’s fundamental right. By 1980 all but two states had no-fault divorce laws. To be fair, not all these states went as far as California in liberalizing their divorce laws. By the mid-1980s about a quarter of the states still required mutual consent in divorces. States also differed in whether property divisions and alimony awards could be affected by “guilt” on the part of one of the married persons. It used to make financial sense for a wife to stay home and take care of the needs of her husband and children. In the (unlikely) event of a divorce, she would be compensated for her years of effort. She might be awarded alimony payments for the rest of her life. If her spouse were the “guilty” party in the divorce, she might be awarded an oversized property settlement. The state saw to it that she would not, as a result of having spent years taking care of her family, subsequently find herself impoverished. No-fault divorce changed all this. It turned full-time motherhood into a financially hazardous occupation. In the no-fault era, a woman can devote two decades—indeed, arguably the best two decades—of her life to her family only to be dumped when her services are no longer required. In most cases the best she can hope for is temporary alimony payments and an equal division of the marital property. She will have to support herself, but thanks to her two-decade layoff, her employment prospects will be bleak. Marriage LawThe Marriage Law, we must remember, is a part of the Domestic Relations Law of the state, and each state has its own Domestic Relations Law which is a part of the incorporated laws of the state. Congress could not pass a Federal Marriage Law without an amendment to the Constitution that would delegate to the Federal Government the power that is now possessed by the states, that is a, the power to authorize and to sanction marriage. There is no doubt that the present condition in the United States leads to many complications and to much confusion. This is especially true when a couple is married according to the civil law of one state and wishes to have a religious ceremony performed in another. There is nothing to do, however, but to live in accordance with the law and to labor for its amendment and improvement from year to year and eventually for a uniform law for all states in the country. The law, it is most necessary to stress, makes marriage a civil contract. This means that the consent of parties capable in law of making a contract is essential. Both these terms “consent” and “capable in law” need to be explained. Some men and women, according to the law, are not legally permitted to marry or to enter into a marriage contract. An ancestor and a descendant, a brother and a sister of either whole or half blood, an uncle and a niece, or an aunt and a nephew are not permitted to marry. These marriages are called incestuous and are prohibited whether the persons are legitimate or illegitimate of birth; and, if contracted, these marriages are void. Other marriages in every state are absolutely void from the outset. A marriage is absolutely void if contracted by a person whose husband or wife by a former marriage is living unless such former husband or wife has been finally sentenced to imprisonment for life. This law applies even in cases in which the former husband or wife has been sentenced to a maximum term of life imprisonment with the privilege at the end of a prescribed less term of applying to the parole board for a release on parole or for an absolute discharge. A marriage is likewise absolutely void if contracted by a person whose husband or wife by a former marriage is living unless such former husband or wife has absented himself or herself for five successive years then last past without being known to such persons to be living during that time. This is the so-called Enoch Arden law. The law authorizes the court in these cases to enter a formal decree declaring such marriages void; but even without this decree the marriage is regarded as void from its inception. The phrase “want of understanding” means that one of the parties is mentally incapable of understanding the nature, effect, and consequence of a marriage. This clearly includes idiots and lunatics who at the time of the marriage were insane. As a matter of law the marriage can be annulled only when it can be proved that want of understanding existed at the time. the marriage took place. Mental incapacity arising subsequently to the time of marriage is not sufficient cause for annulment. The general rule also is that a man is presumed sane until the contrary is proved. Therefore, the marriage cannot be annulled on the ground of want of understanding until this presumption has been overthrown by proof that is clear and satisfactory to the court. The fact that a man or woman suffered an attack of insanity before marriage or developed an attack after marriage is not legally a ground for annulment. In other words, a man or woman who is insane and marries during a lucid interval is validly married, according to the law of the state. Whether a man or woman who is intoxicated or under the influence of a drug at the time of marriage is suffering from a want of understanding is still legally debatable. There can, however, be no debate that such a marriage is immoral and should not be contracted. A marriage may therefore be legal even though it is a violation of morals. Other marriages are voidable, that is, the marriage may be annulled by the court, if action for annulment is instituted. Voidable marriages include cases in which either party thereto: is under the age of legal consent; is incapable of consenting to a marriage for want of understanding; is incapable of entering into the marriage state from physical cause; consents to such marriage by reason of force, duress, or fraud; has a husband or wife by a former marriage living, and such former husband or wife has absented himself or herself for five successive years then last past without being known to such party to be living during that time. The phrase “physical cause” means physical incapacity to enter into the marriage relationship, a condition that is usually described as impotence. It must be proved, however, that impotence existed at the time of marriage, has continued to exist at the time of legal action, and is incurable. It may not be difficult to prove that this physical condition existed at the time of marriage, and it may not be difficult to prove that it continues to exist at the time of legal action; but it may be very difficult to prove that the condition is incurable. The new knowledge of glands and their function, the new science of endocrinology, has resulted in miraculous changes in the glandular systems of both men and women. Glands that were dormant have been stimulated into action and maturity, and many cases of so-called impotence have been cured. It is also known now from the findings of psychiatry that many cases of impotence are due to psychological causes and that through psychiatric treatment these causes can be removed and impotence cured. Few physicians therefore are willing to swear in a court action that any case of impotence is incurable. Impotence does not, of course, include sterility. Sterility, in fact, in either the man or the woman is not a ground for the annulment of a marriage. Force and duress” are self-explanatory: If a person enters into marriage as a result of a threat of personal injury, if a person is abducted and consents to a marriage through fear and in order to secure her liberty, the marriage may be annulled, but the threat must be made by the other party to the contract. A threat made by a third party without knowledge of the other party to the contract is not a ground for annulment. In other words, a marriage to be legal requires the willing agreement of both parties to the contract. “The legal principles governing the authority of the court to annul a marriage on the ground of duress of one of the parties thereto are essentially the same as those applied when the annulment of any other contract is requested upon the like ground, . . . and to be available as a ground for relief it must appear that the duress of the party asking to be relieved was occasioned by the other contracting party, or that he knowingly used or availed himself of such duress as a means of procuring the contract sought to be annulled.” “In an action to annul a marriage on the ground of duress the plaintiff, in order to succeed, must satisfy the court that the duress was occasioned by the other contracting party or that he knowingly used or availed himself of it as a means of procuring the marriage, and it must also appear that the threats of defendant alleged in the complaint constrained the will of the plaintiff and induced her promise. The term “fraud” has been interpreted by the courts in a number of ways, some of which are clear to the laymen and others of which are extremely puzzling. A marriage will not be annulled for fraud unless the facts misrepresented or concealed go to the very essence of the contract. The marriage will not be annulled unless the misrepresentations were of such a nature as to be calculated to deceive a reasonably prudent person. Nor will a marriage be annulled if the misrepresentations were unintentional; nor if a man falsely represented his character or the extent and value of his worldly belongings; nor if a woman concealed the fact, to quote an interesting decision, that she has a swollen tongue or inflammation of the bladder. If a man has engaged in criminal activities before his marriage and conceals this fact from the woman he marries, the marriage can be annulled. If a woman induces a man to marry her on the ground that he is the father of her child and this statement is proved not to be the case, the marriage can be annulled. In one case the court annulled a marriage because a woman persuaded a man who believed in spiritualism that the spirits ordered the marriage to take place. A false statement in regard to chastity prior to marriage is not in itself a ground for annulment. In addition to requiring certain conditions of those who wish to marry, the marriage contract does something else. It confers certain rights upon the two parties to the contract, and it also imposes upon each one certain responsibilities. These rights and responsibilities are implied in the contract and are contained explicitly in the Common Law and the Domestic Relations Law of the state. An interesting thing about these rights and responsibilities is that they change with changing social conceptions and the changing status of women in the course of the centuries. Not many decades ago the Common Law assumed that in marriage the man and the woman are one, and, as one jurist put it, that one is the husband. The woman possessed no legal rights as a wife; she belonged legally to her husband, and what she possessed became his and did not remain hers. As the movement for the emancipation of woman progressed, however, women insisted more and more upon legal recognition and upon legal rights. They have now achieved equal legal status with men in all states, they have also succeeded in ending the ancient fiction that a woman ceases to be a legal entity when she marries. Today she possesses rights that establish her as a person in law. Parents are the natural and legal guardians of their children. They are legally responsible for their children’s welfare and education. If for any reason they do not fulfill these responsibilities, they can be summoned to court. The law, for example, makes education up to sixteen and in some states up to eighteen compulsory. It is the duty of the parents to send their children to school, and if they fail to do so, the State can compel them to act or punish them if they fail. It is the duty of parents to provide for their children properly and to treat them humanely. If they fail to do this, the State can step in and remove the child or children from the home and custody of the parents. Every now and then we read of a child in some community who is neglected or maltreated. In these cases the parent or parents are usually discovered to be habitual delinquents, though in some cases they are found to be only cruel and inhuman and in a few cases to be suffering with a nervous or mental condition. The State in these cases has the power to remove the child and to arrange for its proper care. The implication clearly is that the child is entitled to protection by its parents, and if parents for some reason are unable or unwilling to give this protection, the State must intervene in the interest of the child. The theory in this matter is that the child is the ward of the State, and the State is the ultimate guardian of the child. The Divorce Law is not a part of the Domestic Relations Law, but the subject of divorce is so closely associated with marriage that we must include divorce in any discussion of the legal implications of marriage. Among the couples that come to us for counsel we not infrequently find that either the man or the woman has been divorced. It is therefore necessary for us to know something of the conditions of divorce and the procedure that is involved. We must recognize that the contract of marriage that is authorized and sanctioned by the state cannot be dissolved by the two parties without the consent of the state. They may agree to separate and may draw up a separation agreement, which will serve as a legal document in case the terms are not fulfilled by either party. This is known as voluntary separation. Or one or the other may sue for separation through court action and allow the court to decide upon the terms of separation including allowances and the custody of children and other matters. But their marriage contract cannot be abrogated except by a court of jurisdiction. The battle to secure legal rights for women has been long and arduous and is far from over. Women were not accorded rights under the U.S. Constitution because in the Founding Fathers’ political context women did not exist as actors in civil life. Not until 1971 did the United States Supreme Court use the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to strike down a statute as being discriminatory on the basis of sex. During most of the 19th century women could not enter into a contract or own property. Custody was almost always awarded to fathers, who were seen as having a property right in their children. Wives were the property of their husbands. Until well into the 20th century women could not vote or serve on juries, but they could be denied jobs solely because they were women, be paid less than men for doing the same work, and be fired when they became pregnant. Women were denied credit and equal access to education. Abortion and in some states even contraception were illegal. Wives who failed to follow their husbands anywhere they wished to go could be divorced for abandonment. Husbands were awarded almost all family property at divorce. Rape victims were cross-examined on their entire sexual histories. Domestic violence and sexual harassment were concepts that did not even exist. Despite the great progress made over the last 20 years in reforming the laws that particularly affect women, in the courts today women must still contend with problems ranging from demeaning behavior on the part of judges, lawyers, and court personnel to outright judicial unwillingness to apply and enforce the new laws so as to effectuate their remedial intent. Minority group women may bear the double burden of sex and race discrimination, or they may find themselves denied effective access to the courts for want of a skilled interpreter. The court system is difficult to navigate on one’s own, but lawyers are expensive. Women as a group are poorer than men, and even women who are apparently well off are usually poorer than their husbands if not totally dependent on them for their economic status. In a contest for support enforcement or a change of custody, the man’s deeper pockets place the woman at a significant disadvantage. Single mothers are also often denied meaningful access to the courts because of the Reagan administration’s sustained attack on funding for the Legal Services Corporation. Two-third of Legal Services’ clients are poor women seeking legal assistance for matters such as welfare, housing, domestic violence, divorce, child support, and social security–a fact not often recognized in discussions of women’s issues. The legal services first cut were those for family law matters, because scarce funds had to be dedicated to criminal defense work. These issues are disfavored by the legal system, which prefers to focus on enhancing commerce, an area in which it is easier to maintain the fiction that law is pure, rational, objective, abstract, and principled. Although family law cases are a significant, if not the major, category of cases on every state’s civil docket, every law school requires students to take courses in contracts, real property, and torts (civil wrongs); only one, however, requires family law. Some judges go to great lengths to avoid being assigned to hear matrimonial cases. In some states the family courts receive small shares of the judicial system’s budget, despite the enormity of their caseloads, and family law is seen as not “real law” but the area in which to dump less competent lawyers who yearn to be judges and to whom political favors are owed. The judicial system’s effort to move family law cases out of the courts and into alternative dispute resolution is also of concern to women’s rights advocates. After decades of struggling to have the law and the courts deal seriously with these issues, these advocates are not pleased to see them being reprivatized, decided in a forum in which there is no record made for a possible appeal and thus no accountability. Devaluation of women as individuals is revealed in judicial indifference to domestic violence and the enforcement of support awards. Devaluation of women’s unpaid work as homemakers and mothers is reflected in divisions of marital property at divorce in which the wife is awarded a much smaller share than the husband. Myths and misconceptions about women’s access to well-paying jobs and the costs of child raising result in minimal child support awards that impoverish women and their children. Divorce in the CourtsThe termination of a marriage with minor children has several legal aspects: division of marital property, custody, spousal and child support, and the enforcement of those awards. Although most divorces are resolved through negotiated settlements rather than trials, these settlements reflect what lawyers believe they would obtain at trial, based on those cases which are fully litigated. Law reform efforts by women’s rights and family law advocates over the last 15 years have created a gender-neutral statutory framework for divorce which, when applied with concern for the actual personal and economic circumstances of the parties and their children, can be equitable. Access to the CourtsThe woman who becomes a single mother by virtue of divorce effectively assumes that status from the moment the decision to divorce is made by either party. Because the costs of litigation are enormous, the question of how the divorce itself will be paid for is critical. Although the laws in most states provide that the court is to award the nonmonied spouse counsel and expert fees sufficient to permit the effective litigation of the issues, this rarely happens. For many single mothers, who are almost always poorer than their husbands, the entire divorce process is shaped by the inability to afford proper representation. Extremely few sources for free or low-cost legal assistance are available in divorce litigation. The lawyer a woman retains must often curtail activities such as pressing the husband for full disclosure of his financial assets–something that many men hide with great success during divorce litigation–because the woman cannot pay for the hours necessary to develop that information. If the family has any assets such as a business or investments, a properly conducted case requires appraisal by accountants and other financial experts. This, too, the woman finds difficult to afford. Knowing that women can rarely afford lengthy divorce litigation, some fathers engage in what is called “custody blackmail”–that is, they threaten to sue for custody, which they do not want, as a way to force the woman to reduce or abandon her claims for child and spousal support. Even when they can afford counsel, many women report extreme dissatisfaction with their attorneys’ attitudes and the quality of representation. Although mediation is presented as a less expensive, less emotionally damaging way to conduct a divorce, it, too, has drawbacks for women. Mediation works best between parties of equivalent power. When the female party is less worldly, poorer, truly afraid of losing custody, and perhaps intimidated by a spouse’s psychological or physical cruelty, as is often the case for women, she is far more likely to compromise in order to satisfy the mediator, even though the “compromise” is in fact a one-sided bargain. Divorce mediation that is effective for women requires mediators aware of and skilled in overcoming these gender-based power imbalances, not to mention their own gender-based biases. The sex of the mediator, like the sex of the judge, is no guarantor of sensitivity to these issues. Division of Marital PropertyMarital property generally means all property–homes, cars, clothing, furnishings, businesses, savings, investments–that the couple has acquired during the marriage. Nine states are community property states and by law must divide all marital property in half. The other states divide property according to “equitable distribution”–a legal construct that gives the judge power to determine what percentage of the property and debts should be awarded to each partner, regardless of whose name is on the deed, bank book, loan form or other indicia of ownership. Some states require judges to divide the property equally unless there are important reasons for an unequal division. Most states have a list of factors that the court is to take into account in dividing the property, such as the duration of the marriage; the age, health and income of the parties; and the contributions made by one party as a spouse, parent, wage earner and homemaker to the career or career potential of the other. Some states simply require the judge to divide the property “equitably.” In all equitable distribution states, judges have great discretion in dividing the property, and there is substantial evidence that women are often shortchanged. Many judges do not see the unpaid work a woman performs as homemaker and mother as having contributed significantly to the acquisition of marital assets and as being equal in value and importance to a husband’s paid work outside the home. There is insufficient recognition of how women contribute to their husband’s earning capacity–often the only true asset of the marriage–by keeping the family’s emotional motor running and making it possible for him to focus on his job, career, or business without worrying about how his children are getting to the doctor or whether he will have a clean shirt to wear. (Although men are increasing their participation in homemaking and child care, repeated studies show that women still bear the majority of these responsibilities.) The fact that most women today work full- or part-time outside the home and thus hold down two jobs, as wage earner and homemaker, also often goes unrecognized. Even when husband and wife do the same work, the wife’s effort may go unrewarded. Farm wives find that some judges disregard the fact that the wife has labored right alongside her husband to make their farm viable. Another factor disadvantaging women in property division is that often the court finds a way to keep the husband’s business intact but has no qualms about ordering the sale of the home–in effect the wife’s business–whether immediately or as soon as the children are 18. AlimonyThere is a widespread myth that the award of alimony (also known as maintenance and spousal support) to a wife at divorce is the norm. This is not true now and never was. When increasing numbers of women began to enter the paid work force in the late 1960s, the stage was set for judges to act on their reluctance to award permanent alimony. Short-term alimony does have its place. It is not wrong for the courts to encourage women to become self-supporting, both for their own self-interest and self-esteem and to eliminate repeated litigation about the modification and enforcement of awards. Studies have shown that women provided with sufficient rehabilitative alimony to obtain meaningful education and training are in a much better financial position a few years after divorce than are women whose economic circumstances force them to take the first job they can find. But short-term alimony is not appropriate for the older, long-term homemaker who lacks skills to make her marketable and who will never be able to make up for the years she invested in unpaid homemaker work for the benefit of her family. Even for younger women who are in the paid work force or who have some expectation of success when they join it, fairness may require a combination of rehabilitative and permanent alimony to avoid the kind of stark post divorce economic inequities. Child SupportThe federal Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1984 require each state to enact a variety of mechanisms for enforcing child support and to adopt nonbinding quantitative guidelines for support levels or lose federal funding for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Although passage of these amendments was a significant victory for single mothers, it is too soon to know what their impact will be, and the question that must be asked is, What happened in our court system that made it necessary for the federal government to step in to what had always been a state preserve? As with alimony, the regrettable answer is that not only are many judges uninformed about women’s earning capacity and the true costs of child raising, but among some judges there is an attitude of protectionism toward men and their money and indifference to the financial struggle of women and their children. Legally, both parents are responsible for the support of their minor children. If the parents are divorced or have never been married to one another, state laws provide that the noncustodial parent shall make payments to the custodial parent for the support of the child in accordance with the child’s needs and the standard of living the child would have enjoyed in a two-parent home. Parents may make a private agreement, enforceable in court, as to the amount and schedule of these payments, or they may be ordered by the court. The history of child support has been that awards do not remotely reflect the true costs of child raising or the parents’ incomes. Because children live with their mothers after approximately 90 percent of divorces and in almost all paternity situations, even if the full amount of the award is paid–a rare occurrence–the mother must scramble to make up the difference between payment and need. CustodyAlthough it is widely believed that it is only fathers for whom gender bias is a factor in custody decisions, mothers, too, may be affected by judges’ stereotyped thinking about the true nature and role of women. The cultural stereotype of the good mother is the chaste, selfless woman who is at home and is the caretaker of her children. Women may be deprived of custody because of social relationships and life-styles that are acceptable for men. A single mother need not even be a careerist to be deprived of custody. Merely working outside the home puts her at risk. Some judges believe that any woman at home is better than a mother at work, so when fathers remarry and tell the court they now have a wife at home full-time and can provide a proper environment for the child, there are judges who go along with this and switch custody. They see no irony in the fact that the father, like the mother, is turning his child over to a caretaker while he goes to work, because that is what men are supposed to do. This woman in-the-home standard amounts to a paternal preference because rarely is the woman who has been a full-time homemaker awarded sufficient spousal and child support to permit her to remain a homemaker, and men 35 to 44 remarry twice as often as women. Another growing, unstated, paternal preference is the award of custody to the parent with more money, regardless of who has been the primary caretaker of the child or whether the father has a history of violence. Because fathers almost always are in a stronger financial position than mothers, making money the determinative factor amounts to a paternal preference. The mother who initiates a divorce and seeks custody because she discovers that the father is sexually abusing the children faces particular risks. Some judges simply do not want to believe that sexual abuse and incest are realities, and their attitudes may be compounded by mental health and social work professionals. Thus, if the woman reveals her grounds for wanting the divorce, she may be branded as paranoid or as inventing stories in order to deprive the father of access to his children. Not merely unsupervised visitation but custody itself may be awarded to the father. Experts in the area of child sexual abuse often counsel women not to acknowledge what they know and to seek divorce on other grounds in order to avoid this problem. The welcome facts that fathers are participating more in child rearing and that there are parents who genuinely want joint custody and manage it well also have negative consequences for the single mother. Some judges are so taken with the image of the new father that they award custody to the father who only became an active parent at the time of separation. In some cases there may be good reasons for this, and society as a whole should stop stigmatizing mothers who have given years of daily care and would like voluntarily to turn that responsibility over to fathers. However, in most cases the father’s sudden interest should not be decisive and some states have adopted a “primary caretaker” rule under which, barring unusual circumstances, custody is awarded to the parent who has taken primary responsibility for daily, ongoing care of the child. This rule minimizes both faddish custody awards and the incidence of “custody blackmail,” described above, because the law provides much greater predictability than a generalized “best interests of the child” standard. For the single mother the problems with imposed joint custody are several. Usually joint custody means that although both parents are responsible for making decisions about the child’s welfare, principal physical custody is with one parent, usually the mother. Yet courts are cutting child support awards in joint custody cases as if the mother did not have to continue providing space, food, clothing, etc. for the child on a virtually full-time basis. Imposed joint custody also means that parents who do not get along must agree on decisions about their children. Fathers often use imposed joint custody as a means to continue harassing their former wives, and much repeat litigation is generated, as mothers, must seek court approval for everything from braces to special education. If you are seeking custody of your children, contact an experienced Salt Lake City Utah divorce lawyer. Custody is not automatically given to the mother. Courts in Utah consider many factors when deciding which parent gets custody of minor children. MediationThe best alternative to court is mediation. In certain counties in the United States mediation may be mandated for custody or visitation disputes once divorce papers are filed. One need not wait for a mandatory session, as a private mediator can be hired. Inquire if the mediator is a member of the American Academy of Family Mediators, which will help assure the individual’s training. The court system may also offer mediation sessions even when they are not mandatory. A family mediator can help settle all matters relating to custody and visitation outside of court. Once an agreement is reached, it is simply put into legal language and filed. The process is much less expensive than attorney fees and court costs, and it greatly increases the chance of a smoother separation, since the mediator seeks to have both partners be as satisfied as possible with the result. The mediator also helps to ensure a continued relationship with the children for both parents. On May 5, 2005, a law took effect in Utah that required mandatory mediation for contested divorces. Speak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah divorce lawyer to know about the mandatory mediation requirement in Utah. Financial SupportChild support is set in the United States by federally mandated state guidelines. Call the office of child support enforcement to obtain a copy of the guidelines. Whether one becomes a custodial parent, a noncustodial parent, or a joint-custody parent, it helps to know in advance how things will look financially. An experienced Salt Lake City Utah divorce lawyer can assist you with your child support battle. VisitationConsult with an experienced Salt Lake City Utah divorce lawyer to know how you can get visitation rights. Never assume that because you are the non-custodial parent, the court will automatically grant you visitation rights. Many court jurisdictions specifically define what is meant by “reasonable visitation.” It is important to obtain a copy of the court’s visitation guidelines before a partner leaves the home. There may be special considerations that need to be addressed in even a first hearing. Vague and general final visitation orders should especially be avoided by a partner leaving an abusive situation. Precisely set times for pickup and delivery, prohibitions against verbal abuse of the other parent in the presence of the children, and remedies or consequences for late pickups or non-delivery are just some of the issues that should be answered. Supervised visitation should be considered in cases of child abuse or threat of child abduction. Attention to the long term should be given in the beginning in order to make return trips to court less likely. Separating parents’ classes, books on making separation less traumatic for the child, the advice of an attorney, legal consumer groups, and mediation are all helpful avenues to be used. The information gleaned will help to construct a workable visitation arrangement. Use the time between a temporary order and a final one to constructively gather information and examples that can be applied to an individual situation. While visitation is not often easy for the custodial or the noncustodial parent, parents who separate due to domestic violence need to be especially careful not to use the child as a weapon against one another. A large body of research suggests that parental separation in itself can be healthy for the child who benefits by the removal from partner acrimony but that the child can be harmed by continued conflict after separation, especially when drawn into the arguments by being asked to take sides and other reprehensible demands. Children can also be damaged by the loss of a continued relationship with one of the parents. Custody is an adult decision; visitation and adequate financial support are a child’s rights. Parents who attempt to block or impede visitation may face legal challenges. For partners who have left an abusive situation, it is vitally important that the child not be drawn into old emotional issues or be used as a means to try to control the former partner. For men, who face a statistically greater likelihood of being noncustodial parents, the abusive former partner may continue to try to establish control through visitation blocking, denial, or using the bait of increased visitation in exchange for favors. Anyone who is denied visitation rights needs to discuss the situation with an attorney. The most important item in any such case is proof; a witness to the denial of court-ordered visitation is vital. It is also important for the child that the noncustodial parent take care not to give up on visitation attempts or fall into the trap of denigrating the former partner to the child. A continued demonstration of caring is vital for the child’s self-esteem. Denouncing the other parent to the child usually backfires, by forcing the child to defend that parent or take on an unfair adult role as a mediator. Support groups for children of separated parents are available in some school districts and provide an opportunity to share common visitation problems and other issues with peers under a counselor’s guidance. Such groups are particularly valuable for a child without siblings. Taking the Big Step to LeaveSpeak to an experienced Salt Lake City Utah divorce lawyer if you are a battered spouse seeking divorce. You must act fast for your safety. This emotional moment is necessary but has its dangers. Leaving the household in a hurry may have long-term adverse consequences. The phrase “possession is nine tenths of the law” has particular meaning in domestic relations cases. Leaving valued material possessions in the hands of a vindictive spouse could result in their being damaged, sold, or destroyed. Even if the victim believes the children are not in danger, leaving them with the former mate may greatly limit the chances of legal custody later. Restraining OrdersThe restraining/protective order removes an abusive partner from the home. The victim and any children stay. It will need to be proven in a hearing (usually within two weeks) that both parties attend that there has been domestic violence. A man may face a higher standard of proof that he is the primary victim. It is critical for both men and women victims to prepare for a restraining order before one is actually sought. The first step is to go to the courthouse and obtain information about how the restraining or protective order process works. Emergency restraining order hearings with a judge are usually limited to certain times of the day. These hearings are most often very brief. The victim may get assistance in some localities with a court-appointed advocate. Such an advocate should prove valuable in convincing the judge that the case is serious enough to warrant an emergency temporary order. The victim may need time to schedule an appointment with the advocate in advance of the emergency hearing. If the police have responded to incidents of domestic violence at the household in the past, copies of those reports need to be obtained and presented at the emergency temporary restraining order hearing and again at the hearing in which the order is extended, changed, or not allowed to continue. The victim needs to be prepared to assist his or her attorney with testimony or credible documentation from other household members, relatives, friends, and acquaintances who have witnessed, seen the results of, or can offer corroborating evidence of domestic violence. Any hospital or physician medical records about injuries should be introduced. If there are observable injuries, photographs of the injuries should be taken and a credible witness or documentation provided as to the circumstances of the pictures. Thousands of restraining orders are obtained every day in the United States, and the majority are granted without the assistance of an attorney. The male victim, however, faces obstacles unique to his gender. Advice as to which judge and/or advocate who may be more understanding of his plight could be crucial. Knowledge of personnel in the district attorney’s office if criminal charges are sought may also be vital. The male victim in particular should seek out an attorney in advance of the need. Finding an attorney who has had prior experience successfully representing male abuse victims will likely take some extended effort, and in some localities, an attorney with prior experience in such cases may not exist. It may take some time to locate a person with adequate expertise in domestic relations law, who will not hesitate to be a strong advocate and who is aware of any sexism in the system. Going BackRestraining orders and criminal charges are often dropped or ignored by a domestic violence victim following a reconciliation with his or her partner. The victim is relying on promises that it won’t happen again. The dynamic of domestic violence feeds on the regrets of both victim and perpetrator, and there can be no guarantee that there will not be a repeat of a violent episode. The victim should not rely on promises. He or she should demand specific steps before considering returning. These steps should at a minimum include anger management classes and counseling. If alcohol or drug abuse is part of the situation, a comprehensive and completed treatment program should be required. The primary physical abuse victim should not neglect his or her own specific steps before considering returning. Gathering information through reading and from others about domestic violence should be a priority, including resources directed at abused women, because of the similarities we have discussed. Counseling to better understand the victim’s role in an abusive situation is necessary, not only to ensure that he or she is prepared to break out of roles and patterns of behavior that contribute to a lack of self-esteem typical of abuse victims but also to help identify factors that may contribute to seeking relationships based on domestic violence in the future. If the victim does return after specific conditions are met, he or she should still be prepared to act quickly with the previously described emergency exit plan and other steps in place. There must be no acceptance of being physically or verbally abused again. One more abusive act must be the final “last straw.” Male victims tend to be particularly dismissive of so-called minor acts, but it does not matter if he has been “not hardly hurt” or has had much worse happen to him on the athletic playing field. It is abuse when it comes from one’s mate. The victim must wrest control from his mate and give it to himself. He must not return to or accept old dysfunctional patterns of behavior in the relationship. Support in leaving does exist. The victim must accept the responsibility and task of finding that support and taking the necessary step of never returning to this or any other abusive relationship again. Salt Lake City Utah Divorce Lawyer Free ConsultationWhen you need legal help for a divorce in Salt Lake City Utah, please call Ascent Law (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
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What Happens To Equity In Foreclosure? via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/divorce-lawyer-salt-lake-city-utah/ Even if you’ve only been convicted of a misdemeanor driving under the influence charge instead of a felony, your job prospects might be narrowed. Many employers ask whether you’ve been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony, and most who ask run background checks to help them find the right candidates. If your chosen career doesn’t involve much driving, handling sensitive material or dealing with children, your employer might understand about a DUI conviction. Just being arrested for a DUI won’t usually affect your job search. Most states allow employers to ask about convictions, but not about arrests. However, some states have specific arrests employers can inquire about. For example, in Utah, applying for positions with access to medications requires you to disclose any drug arrests, even those without a conviction. You don’t have to volunteer information about a DUI arrest, and you should give information on convictions only if asked specifically during an interview or on a written application. You can also check with an attorney about getting a DUI conviction expunged from your record, which means you won’t have to acknowledge it as a conviction on employment applications. Employers for some positions tend to be more sensitive about DUIs than others. If you’re planning to work with children, such as a teacher or daycare provider, you might have trouble finding a job with a DUI conviction on your record. Positions that require driving, especially a company vehicle, could be a problem as well. These positions include bus drivers, truck drivers, delivery drivers and outside salespeople. Many companies that handle confidential information have a policy to hire no one with a criminal record, and you might have a hard time getting into the military or getting a government job after your DUI conviction. In addition to having a black mark on your record, getting a DUI can halt your job search in other ways. You might lose your driver’s license for a period of time, which can leave you without reliable transportation to work. If you live in an area without adequate public transportation, this can hinder your ability to find a job. Relying on friends and family to get you back and forth can be a problem, as you won’t be in total control of whether you’re late to work or if you can make it to meetings outside the office. You also won’t have a driver’s license to provide to human resources to complete your hiring paperwork. Although you can usually get a state ID card, not being able to provide a valid driver’s license might raise red flags with hiring managers. If you aren’t applying for a DUI-sensitive job, prepare some responses in advance to help offset the damage done by a DUI conviction. Although you don’t have to volunteer the information, don’t lie if asked directly about past convictions. A background check will likely disclose it, which makes you guilty of a DUI and lying. Disclosure of a DUI is unlikely to shock an experienced interviewer. Keep your explanation of the DUI short, and sound apologetic. Mention that it was a momentary lapse in judgment, and that you’ve learned your lesson. Follow up by giving the employer examples of some responsible actions you’ve taken, at work or in a volunteer setting, to let them know you are trying to make positive changes. A first-time offender faces at least 10 days and up to 1 year in prison. In addition to jail time, First-time offenders are also required to participate in a substance abuse assessment and evaluation and follow all recommendations made from the assessment and evaluation. And those are only the consequences of the criminal case. A first time offender would also risk losing his driver’s license. The usual driver’s license revocation period for a first-time offender is 180 days. But if the license is a commercial license, the first-time offender will be disqualified from driving a commercial vehicle for at least one year if the driver commits a DUI while driving a commercial vehicle. Facing jail time, heavy fines, and the loss of a driver’s license may seem bad enough but it can be much, much worse. All these consequences are if you are arrested driving with a BAC over the legal limit of 0.05 but under 0.15. If you are arrested driving with a BAC of over 0.15, then you can be charged with an aggravated DUI. A first-time offender convicted of an aggravated DUI will be subject to the usual penalties and more. The first-time offender will be sentenced to at least one year of supervision and periodic alcohol testing, 480 hours of community service, and use of an ignition interlock device for at least 30 days. Even if you are not convicted of another offense, a DUI can still hurt you even after you’ve done your jail time and paid your fine. Because a DUI is a criminal matter, it can become part of your permanent criminal history. That means every time you apply for a job and a potential employer conducts a background check; the employer will know about your DUI and may not hire you because of your criminal history. In this difficult job market, a DUI on your criminal record can be a hard handicap to overcome. The simplest way to keep a DUI from ruining your life is to not to get one! But if you have been arrested and charged with a DUI, then an attorney can help you. An attorney can help a first-time offender understand what the charge means, what the consequences are, and how the criminal justice system works. An attorney can also help a first-time offender reach the most desirable end result of the criminal case. A lawyer can also keep a first-offense DUI from following you into the future. There are multiple ways to keep a DUI from becoming part of your permanent criminal history, such as diversion and expungement. An attorney can help you figure out what legal strategy best meets your needs and help you keep one past mistake from becoming a permanent black mark on your future. While losing your career is just one potential consequence, it is a very real possibility. Here are ways being charged with a DUI can destroy your career. • A suspended license: After being arrested for a DUI, your driver’s license will be suspended. The consequences of this are obvious if you drive for a living; but this can affect your job even if you do not have to drive while actually on the job. You will still need to get to work, and if you commute this will have a serious impact. The expense of taking a taxi or hiring a private driver is too exhaustive for most people, and taking public transportation can be unreliable. Your driver’s license might be essential to your job and if that is the case, your career can take a hit. • Loss of insurance: In Utah, you may be eligible for a restricted license after a DUI conviction so that you can continue driving to and from work. But just because the authorities allow you to keep your license does not mean the insurance company will follow suit. Many insurance companies refuse to provide insurance to people after a DUI conviction. This is a major problem when you have to drive for your job and your employer’s insurance company refuses to insure you. And if your own insurance company refuses to insure you, you may still be off the road for some time while trying to find a new company. Either way, that insurance is going to be far more expensive than it was before the conviction. • Possible firing: More and more employers are including mandatory firings for convictions of a crime in their employee handbooks. When they do, they often also make it mandatory that you report the arrest to them as soon as possible. If this is the case, even a minor DUI charge may have you leaving your job sooner than you had planned. • Diversion programs: A diversion, or rehabilitative, program is something the courts may offer you to avoid going to jail. But in order to qualify for a diversion program you need to plead “guilty” or “no contest” to the crime, and the courts may make it mandatory that your employer is made aware of the situation. A case worker may even visit you at work. If your employer finds out and they have a mandatory firing policy, you could still lose your job even if you have managed to keep your license and avoid jail time. • Loss of professional license: Many professions have licenses that workers in that field must hold in order to qualify for their careers. This is the case for lawyers, doctors, nurses, and accountants, to name just a few. One of the requirements of holding the license is that you must tell your employer immediately if you are convicted of a crime; and some agencies will even revoke your license. Again, this could result in the loss of your job. • Missing work: Even if your employer decides to keep you on after a conviction, or even if they never find out about it, you will still be required to be present for court appearances. In addition, you may also be required to enroll in a substance abuse program, causing you to miss even more work. Missing all this time from work can cause problems, and you may be fired from your job just for this reason. • Difficulty with future job applications: If you are fired from your current job after a DUI conviction, you will need to find new work. That conviction can cause problems here, too. Most applications ask if you have any arrests or convictions on your record and even when they do not, the potential employer may still be able to find out from public records or your driver’s license record, or by asking you why you left your last job. • Difficulty getting education: Just as potential employers may not hire you if you have been convicted or arrested of a DUI, so too certain colleges and universities will not accept you. Applications for financial aid may also be turned down for the same reason. Some schools will still accept your application if you can prove that you have attended a treatment program, but not all will. • Your commercial driver’s license: Due to the serious nature of DUI convictions, they stay on a commercial driver’s license for 55 years. If you need to drive for your career, there is a good possibility that you will simply need to find a new career. There are many consequences that can come after being arrested or convicted of a DUI, and losing your job is one of them. It is serious, and it is something everyone needs to think of before getting behind the wheel after having a few drinks. You may be ineligible for some jobs entirely. Some professions will be forever out of your reach once you have a drunk driving conviction. Whether you’re working as a police officer to being a teacher or returning to college, your DUI will severely limit your options. Some professional associations will not license you if you have a DUI conviction. Your conviction is online forever. In today’s Internet-savvy climate, your record will follow you wherever you go. If your DUI appears in your local paper, online, or on any social media site, you can expect it to pop up anytime someone searches for you on the internet. Since every situation is different, the best way to protect your current job and your prospects is to avoid getting a DUI in the first place. If you already are being charged with driving drunk, you need a DUI attorney in Utah to help you avoid conviction and minimize the impact the situation will have on your personal and professional life. So, what do you do if you’re pulled over and you’ve had a few here are some pieces of advice that seem to be universal: • Stay calm: Police are looking to see if you are agitated, nervous or belligerent. Be polite and calm at all times. • Open your window: It may be cold (or hot) out, but you need to clear the alcohol fumes. Plus, you will need to speak with the officer. Do it as quickly as you can. • Get your license and registration ready: You don’t want them to see you fumbling or dropping things. • Speak as little as possible: Look at them but point your mouth away from the officer’s face. If you are asked where you are coming from, if you’ve been drinking or how much you’ve had to drink, don’t answer. Say, politely, something like, “I have nothing to say.” If you say any more, you may slur your words, and they will smell your breath. If you admit you had dinner with friends, came from a bar or club, or were drinking, that evidence can and will be used against you. • Refuse the field sobriety test: You don’t have to submit to the field tests they give, like walking in a straight line, touching your nose, etc. They don’t have to tell you that you can refuse. You can. Refuse. They’re subjective and even sober people can fail. • Portable Breathalyzer: The advice I’ve found on taking the portable Breathalyzer is mixed. The majority seems to be against it, but you’ll be taken to the station if you refuse. If you decline, you might say something like, “I’d prefer to go to the station to be tested.” • Blood versus breath: I’ve also seen mixed advice on choosing the blood test versus the Breathalyzer, if your state allows the choice (and you may have to ask if you have the choice). The blood tests are more accurate but samples can be retested. Breathalyzer results may be more easily challenged, but also give more false positives. In most states, refusing to be chemically tested is a crime in itself, so you may not want to refuse. DUI Defense Lawyer Free ConsultationWhen you need legal help to defend against a DUI charge in Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Criminal Defense Lawyer Magna Utah Child Support And Taxes In Divorce via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/will-a-dui-ruin-my-career/ Everyone wants to leave a wonderful legacy behind. However, there are steps you need to take when you are alive to ensure that you leave wonderful legacy behind. Speak to an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to know more. Remember if you die without a valid estate planning device in place, you have no control over how your assets will be distributed after your death. The State of Utah will decide who gets what and how much of your estate using certain formula prescribed by a set of laws known as Utah intestacy laws. Leaving money to heirs is a wonderful legacy, but it can also raise important questions. Money left outright or in trust can leave heirs with questions about what the money “means” and what you meant by leaving it to them in the form you did. You would be surprised, even shocked, at how often heirs misunderstand and read unpleasant intentions into an inheritance or trust document. When money is left to a child by a parent who has died when that child is too young to remember much, leaving letters, videos, and a record of your values, hopes, and dreams is especially healing. Even if your children are grown, it is wise to leave them a loving record of what you meant. It can take the coldness out of the probate process and reassure them that your choices are motivated by your bond with them. Of course, nothing is better than your living voice, face to face. Since no one can be certain of the circumstances of his or her own death, you may want to be diligent about dialogue now and making your wishes or expectations clear. It can be so helpful to free heirs of their guessing by transparent conversations about your wishes, especially with adult children or your spouse. If there are contingencies to your leaving money (for example, when a child receives money from a trust only if she or he has completed a certain level of schooling or earned his or her own income for a certain period of time), make them known as well. Get a shared understanding, even an agreement. Don’t let the last will and testament come as a big surprise, shrouded in mystery and legal language. Consult with an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to decide on which estate planning device you should use. Estate planning means planning for the orderly handling, disposition, and administration of your goods and money when you die. Charitable estate planning is a vehicle that can help you give after you die in ways and amounts that often you could not give during your lifetime. There is a misconception that only those with a lot of money or other assets need to undertake thoughtful estate planning, including writing a will. That’s not true. If you have any money in a bank or retirement account, own a home or other real estate, or own anything of any value—a car, a work of art, jewelry—you have the chance to decide what will happen to these possessions after your death. If you don’t decide, the government will decide for you. For those with larger estates, to die without an up-to-date will can cost a significant fraction of your wealth at death in unnecessary taxes. Estate planning, in short, lets you provide for loved Bequests to the nonprofits you love and trusts for your family or heirs What if the estate tax goes away?Or what if it changes in some other way? We must each take responsibility to keep our plans up to date with changing personal circumstances and changing laws. A plan that was perfect several years ago may well not work for you today. Developing a strong working relationship with an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer is one key to success. Experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyers are underused now by most of us. They hold much valuable information that can serve us and our giving objectives. If we were all more diligent about our planning and made better use of an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer, we would probably be able to give substantially more and see better results for our families, our communities, and our own peace of mind. Experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyers work for us and are engaged to serve us. Put an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to work for all you love. Following are some questions an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer will ask. By preparing your answers in advance, you may enable your Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to serve you better. • What do you want your legacy to be? What would you like your giving to say about who you are and what you believe? • Have you considered ways to spark giving during your lifetime with your children or other family members? • How much time do you want to devote to philanthropy? Do you know the services that we provide and what they cost? What role do you want an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to play in supporting your philanthropy? • How much do you want to leave to the next generation and how do you want it distributed? Here are some specific questions that you may want to ask an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer. It is important to realize that these questions are not the stock in trade of estate planning. Many of them fall under the category of financial planning—that is, planning for what happens while you are alive. By raising these questions in an estate planning interview you signal quite properly that for you a legacy is to be lived as well as left. You are not all about death. You want to make an impact while alive. These questions help provide the right framework for the discussion with your experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer. If you are asking these questions of an estate tax attorney, she or he may refer you to an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to get certain of your questions answered. Planning is generally a team effort. • Can I afford to be more generous now? Can I afford to be more generous later? What about at death? How are you calculating that? • What amount of money can I afford to give annually and at the time of my death that would best minimize taxes, help my favorite causes, and still get the right amount of money to my heirs? • Can you provide estimates early in the year as well as a year-end figure for the maximum dollar amount I will be able to give to nonprofits before I have given so much that I can no longer get a current income tax deduction? • I am considering a donor-advised fund, a supporting foundation, or a private foundation for my giving. What are the pros and cons of giving through different vehicles? Which ones might work best for me given my income, goals, and asset structure? • Can you help me establish charitable legacy or estate gifts that will benefit my community, my family, and my friends? Are you reasonably expert in this area, or is someone in your firm a specialist? • Would it work better for my tax picture if I gave appreciated stock instead of writing a check? • Are there legacy strategies such as buying insurance to cover multiyear pledges or other trusts or funding vehicles that I should consider now? • I’d like to help pay for my grandchildren’s education. What’s the best way to do that? • Do you have experience working with a team of advisers who can help integrate financial, tax, estate, and philanthropic planning? How do you and others on the team get clear about my philanthropic aspirations? Are you comfortable talking about my ideals and how to actualize them? If not, can you refer me to a potential member of the team who is passionate and informed in this area? • How do you feel about socially responsible or green investments? Can you or someone on the team support my interest in this area of investing? • I want my ideals to drive the planning process. I am also determined to have real impact on the causes I support. Are you willing and able to help me with the due diligence that will be needed to monitor my mission-based investments? If not, can you recommend someone else to add to this planning team? The wonderful thing about having a trusted financial experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer or team is that, if they are the right fit for you, they are likely to provide you with guidance and resources on how to manifest many of your dreams. Communication is key. We all know from our personal and business lives that good communication is a two-way street. Good communication takes an effort on both sides. Husband and wife, partners and friends, clients and attorneys, need to work at eliciting and fulfilling your goals, objectives, and aspirations in a spirit of mutual respect and common purpose. Don’t play the blame game or fall silent in frustration. Estate planning at its core is far removed from the languages of tax and law. Attorneys are lucky to have clients like you. As a truly engaged giver, you are the exception to the rule. So to get the outcomes you need and deserve, you are the one who must come forward to guide the conversation toward the language of love and social benefit. Once you do, and an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer hear you, the whole tenor of the engagement changes and you work with advisers as partners in a noble effort. You lead on ideals. The advisers will follow with the tools and techniques. An inspired legacy starts with an inspired legacy lead partner—that will be you. You speak up for what is good and right. Woods Cross Utah probate lawyers want to do the right thing. They want you as a satisfied client who speaks well of them. They will meet you on higher ground, putting their skills to work on behalf of your highest purposes, if you provide clarity, good data, and leadership. There are some things that you truly cannot delegate. If you want the best results and an inspired legacy, then your focus for several key hours is essential. This is important work to prioritize for those you love. Remember that as with surgeons, bedside manner is important but is not the whole job. You are hiring an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to be technically competent. As long as you have at least one adviser on your team with whom you can communicate at a deep level, others can be hired for their technical skills, as long as you or your most trusted adviser – your experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer succeeds in building a good, strong working team on your behalf. Establish an estate planning device now, before the end is so near that planning becomes burdensome. You will be considering your family, friends, and close ones. Then take a few minutes to decide whether you wish to engage an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to help you pull the pieces together so that you leave the legacy of love that inspires you. This is, after all, your legacy, and these choices are yours to decide. Sometimes talking with someone about your intentions and fleshing out the details that will appear in your will or estate plan can lead to greater impact. Many a technically competent estate plan would be even better if it was drafted by an experienced Woods Cross Utah probate lawyer to spearhead your highest priorities, beyond money and taxes. Woods Cross Utah Probate Attorney Free ConsultationWhen you need legal help from a probate lawyer in Woods Cross Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC (801) 676-5506 for your Free Consultation. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
Does Wife Get Half In Divorce? Criminal Defense Lawyer Magna Utah via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/probate-lawyer-woods-cross-utah/ Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortgage lender (mortgagee), or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower (mortgagor)’s equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law (after following a specific statutory procedure). Usually a lender obtains a security interest from a borrower who mortgages or pledges an asset like a house to secure the loan. If the borrower defaults and the lender tries to repossess the property, courts of equity can grant the borrower the equitable right of redemption if the borrower repays the debt. While this equitable right exists, it is a cloud on title and the lender cannot be sure that they can repossess the property. Therefore, through the process of foreclosure, the lender seeks to immediately terminate the equitable right of redemption and take both legal and equitable title to the property in fee simple. Other lien holders can also foreclose the owner’s right of redemption for other debts, such as for overdue taxes, unpaid contractors’ bills or overdue homeowner association dues or assessments. How Foreclosure WorksWhen you buy real estate (also called real property), such as a home, you might not have enough money to pay the entire purchase price up front. However, you can pay a portion of the price with a down payment, and borrow the rest of the money (to be repaid in future years). Homes can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and most people don’t earn anywhere near that much annually. Why are lenders willing to offer such large loans? As part of the loan agreement, you agree that the property you’re buying will serve as collateral for the loan: if you stop making payments, the lender can take possession of the property in order to recover the funds they lent you. To secure this right, the lender has a lien on your property, and to improve their chances of getting enough money, they (usually) only lend if you’ve got a good loan to value ratio. First, the trustee’s fees and attorney’s fees are taken from the surplus fund. Included in the trustee’s fees are mailing costs, services rendered and filing fees. Next, the trustee distributes money to pay the obligations secured by the deed of trust, which is the remaining balance on the loan. After the lender is paid, the trustee distributes funds to any junior lien holders, such as home equity lines of credit. Finally, the homeowner may claim surplus funds from the equity in the property. You must notify the trustee within 30 days of the foreclosure auction to place a claim on the surplus funds. What Happens to Equity During Foreclosure?Home equity stays the property of a homeowner even in the event of a mortgage default and foreclosure on the home. But the foreclosure process can eat away at the equity. The following five points explain what home equity is, what happens to it during foreclosure and options to protect. What Is Equity?Equity is the difference between the current market value of your home and the amount you owe on it. It is the portion of your home’s value that you actually own. For example, if you purchased a $200,000 home with a 20 percent down payment of $40,000 and a mortgage loan of $160,000, the equity in your home is $40,000. Equity is the value of the property minus any liens or amounts owed on it for mortgages and liens. When your mortgage loan balance drops below the appraised value of your property, you have equity in your home. Conversely, if you owe more on the mortgage than your home is worth, you have no equity. Unless you have significant equity in your property, you can expect to lose that money during the foreclosure process. https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/immigration-and-hiring-for-businesses/ In Foreclosure, Equity Remains Yours if there is any to getForeclosure is a legal preceding that follows your being in default on your home loan. What constitutes default varies with each loan and with the laws of each state. But in every case, if you have not made a determined number of payments, the lender places your loan in default and can begin foreclosure. If you cannot get new financing or sell the home, the lender can sell the home at auction for whatever price they choose. If the home does not sell at auction, the lender can sell the home through a real estate agent. Remember that equity is what you own of your home’s value. In any of the above cases, if the house is sold and there is money left over after the loan and all fees and penalties are paid, that is equity and that is yours. Fees Cut Into ityour equity is being reduced before foreclosure starts. For most home mortgages, there are late-payment penalties. So, if you are late on your loan and it goes into default, for example, after four months of missed payments, the late-payment penalties for those months are added to the total loan amount and will be subtracted from the proceeds of any sale. That reduces your equity. Additionally, the lender can charge fees related to processing the late payments, the declaration of default, the foreclosure proceedings and expenses of the sale against your equity. This can amount to tens of thousands of dollars, which will be subtracted from anything owed you after a foreclosure sale. Low Home Appraisals Reduce itif your home goes into foreclosure, the lender will have the home appraised for an auction sale. Typically, a lender will accept an offer of 90 percent of the home’s appraised value. Lenders do not want to own your home, particularly if it is a time of declining home values. It is typical for the lenders to accept low home appraisal values so that the home will sell at auction and not have to be listed with an agent. That reduced appraisal value means a lower sales price that yields a lower amount of money left over after the loan and fees are paid. When You Foreclose, You Still Get Your Money, If There Is AnyAlright, let’s talk through a scenario. You bought a house 15 years and got a 30-year mortgage. You lost your job 6 months ago and have fallen behind on your payments. You decide that foreclosure is the best option for you. You have a bunch of equity on the home and the value of your home has slowly increased over the last 15 years. So, let’s say you bought it for $200,000, and now it values at $265,000. You have been a faithful mortgage payer for 15 years and only owe just over $120,000 on the home. Well, that means you have $145,000 in equity on the home. Now that you are foreclosing though, don’t you think you should get that money back? It would only make sense. Alright, first off, because you are so behind on your mortgage, you have late fees. Those end up affecting your equity. With those fees affecting the equity, your equity will start to decrease. So, if we use the above scenario, let’s say those late fees equated to $10,000. You now only have $135,000 in equity. On top of those fees, the process of foreclosing actually costs money too. So, you start to lose more and more of your equity. This could be upwards of $20,000, leaving you with only $115,000 in equity. When a home goes up for foreclosure, the lender wills often the take the lowest appraised values. This way they can sell the home quickly. So, let’s say the lowest appraised value of your home ends up being $250,000 now. Well, that is a $15,000 decrease in your equity. You are looking now at $100,000 in equity. On top of that, the lender usually will take an offer of only 90% of the appraised value so that they can sell the home quickly. So, the house then sells for $225,000. This would leave you with only $75,000 in equity. Options to ConsiderAs you can see, you just lost half of your equity by going forward with your foreclosure. But, what if we told you there was another way? You can put your house on the market with a real estate agent and sell the house before the foreclosure sale. This would be best as you can protect and get your equity from your property. If you don’t want to sell, look at filing a bankruptcy case. You can file a chapter 7 or a chapter 13 bankruptcy case which will stop the foreclosure. Before facing foreclosure, refinance your loan to an affordable payment if you can or take advantage of a loan modification program. If this is not possible, sell the home as soon as you can. By selling the home, you are reducing the fees and penalties you owe, setting the price yourself at which you want to sell and avoiding the legal costs of foreclosure. All of this can add to the equity you take out of your home. Consequences of ForeclosureThe main problem with going through foreclosure is, of course, the fact that you will be forced out of your home. You’ll need to find another place to live, and the process is stressful (among other things) for you and your family. Foreclosure can also be expensive. As you stop making payments, your lender will charge penalties and legal fees, and you might pay legal fees out of pocket to fight foreclosure. Any fees added to your account will increase your debt to the lender, and you might still owe money after your home is taken and sold if the sales proceeds are not sufficient (known as a deficiency). Foreclosure will also hurt your credit scores. Your credit reports will show the foreclosure, which credit scoring models will see as a negative signal. You’ll have a hard time borrowing to buy another home for several years (although you might be able to get certain government loans within one to two years), and you’ll also have more difficulty getting affordable loans of any kind. Your credit scores can also affect other areas of your life, such as (in limited cases) your ability to get a job or your insurance rates. Let’s say you own a home currently valued at $500,000, that you owe $200,000 on it, and that you have a 6% loan. Now, for whatever reason, you can’t make the payments, and for whatever reason, you don’t sell while you have the opportunity before the trustee’s auction. In California, you are going to be four months behind before the Notice of Default happens. So that is four payments of $1200. Furthermore, when you are fifteen days late you owe a 4% penalty, or $48, and when you are thirty days late, the missed payments start accruing interest. So at the point that the Notice of Default is possible, you owe $204,777.83. From Notice of Default to Notice of Trustee’s Sale is another 60 days, but before that happens, the bank is going to hit you with $10,000 to $15,000 in administrative fees for going into default. Check your contract; it’s in there. Let’s say $12,000, and now you owe $216,777. Add another two months of delinquent payments, and penalties as of 15 days after. So as of the time the Auction actually happens, you owe $219,447. Furthermore, to make the auction happen, they will charge you about another $15,000. This covers the expenses of making the auction happen, of which the most noteworthy is the appraisal. At this point, you owe $234,447. The appraisal bears special mention. Not only is there zero pressure to get a good value, the bank wants that appraisal to come in nice and low. They want the property to sell at auction, and if maximize the chance of it selling at auction. Every once in a while questions about low appraisals at trustee sales hit the site. The short answer is Microsoft Standard: “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” and from the bank’s point of view, it is. So even though the property might sell for $500,000 in the normal course of things, the appraisal might come in at $440,000, meaning that someone has to bid $396,000 in order to buy the property at auction. The appraisal might be even lower, but let’s say $440,000.nobody bids 90% of the appraisal price, and then they own it and have to go through the rigmarole of hiring an agent and selling it. So that appraisal is going to come in as low as is reasonable. Foreclosure Real Estate Attorney Free ConsultationWhen you need help with a foreclosure, quiet title case, eviction, boundary dispute, or other real estate law matter, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
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8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
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Real Estate Lawyer Midway Utah Immigration And Hiring For Businesses Don’t Trust Divorce Information On The Internet via Michael Anderson https://www.ascentlawfirm.com/what-happens-to-equity-in-foreclosure/ Criminal trials in Utah are complex. Always hire the services of an experienced Magna Utah criminal defense lawyer to represent you in a criminal trial. When someone is put on trial for a crime, the prosecution presents its side of the case first. During the presentation of the prosecution’s case, the defendant has a chance to poke holes in the prosecution’s case by cross- examining the prosecution’s witnesses. Then the defendant has the opportunity to present her own side of the story. In short, the prosecution is saying, “You did it.” The defendant can respond in one of two ways: By saying “No” or by saying “Yes, but.” The defendant’s “No” in response to the prosecution case essentially means that the defendant didn’t commit the crime charged. “Yes, but” responses are different. Instead of rebutting the prosecution’s claims, the defense introduces some new factor that exonerates the defendant. Criminal law has identified two types of “Yes, but” defenses, or reasons why we might not want to punish someone who has satisfied the elements of an offense: justifications and excuses. Criminal law defines an act as criminal because it is wrong, both in terms of moral fault and social harm. But sometimes committing a crime doesn’t seem wrong; because of special circumstances, doing something that otherwise would be criminal is an act that we want to tolerate or even encourage. When this occurs, we say that the act is justified and the defendant is not guilty of a crime. Usually justifications involve a choice among evils, and when someone chooses the lesser of two evils, she should not be punished for doing so. Justifications include self-defense, acting under official authority, and other circumstances that involve a choice of evils. At other times a criminal act is not justified, but there is still something about the case that makes us uneasy about imposing criminal liability. What the offender did was not the right thing to do, but some special circumstances suggest that she couldn’t be expected to do any better. In those circumstances the offender is excused. Excuses include mental disorders, intoxication, and duress. If we are going to require that someone acting in self-defense act like a reasonable person, what characteristics does the reasonable person have? Ordinarily we take into account some of the actor’s physical conditions but not his mental state. A weak person reasonably may believe that he has to use deadly force to repel the attack of a much stronger person, but a fearful person cannot claim self-defense in every unpleasant encounter. The test for self-defense is that the defendant believe the use of defensive force is necessary in the face of an attack and, in most jurisdictions, that the defendant’s belief is reasonable. Self-defense must also be used in the face of an imminent attack or threat. The usual requirement that harm be imminent to justify self-defense protects both the aggressor and the victim; the rule encourages the victim to escape if she can so that neither she nor the aggressor is unnecessarily killed. If she can escape, she should. She is morally blameless only where she cannot escape and kills in imminently necessary self-defense. There are two other situations in which someone might be justified in committing a crime. One is quite common. If a police officer tackles a fleeing bank robber, has he committed an assault? Of course not. The exercise of government authority makes lawful what otherwise would be a criminal act. Suppose the police officer can’t reach the robber and instead yells, “Stop that man.” If a private citizen nearby tackles the robber, has she committed an assault? Again, no. Aiding a police officer is to be encouraged and is certainly not wrongful, so she has a defense, too. What if the private citizen acts on her own when no police officer is present? Here the citizen is more at risk; in some jurisdictions even a reasonable belief will not protect her if the person she assaults has not in fact committed a crime. What if the fleeing person is not really a bank robber, but rather was a bank customer, leaving with a sack of money he had withdrawn, who was frightened by the robbery and ran away? The police officer would be protected by his reasonable belief that the person he tackled was a robber, but in some jurisdictions the private citizen might not. Finally, can the police officer shoot the fleeing robber? The robber apparently has committed a serious crime, but does it justify the use of deadly force? Traditionally the officer was justified in using deadly force against any fleeing felon, but recently the defense has been restricted. If the criminal uses deadly force against a police officer, the officer can respond in kind. If the criminal flees, though, the officer can only use deadly force if she reasonably believes it to be necessary to arrest a person who threatens life or serious injury. Thus, the officer can shoot an armed bank robber but not a thief who has tricked the bank teller into giving him money. The second situation involving justification occurs much less frequently but pushes our understanding of criminal law to the limit. Self-defense and the exercise of law enforcement authority are justified because the actor is choosing the lesser of two evils. It’s not good to kill someone who attacks you, but it is better than being killed yourself. The insanity defense has been part of the criminal law for centuries, and the classic hypotheticals seem to make sense. A man acting under an insane delusion strangles his wife, all the time thinking that he is squeezing a lemon. How can someone who did not even understand the physical nature of his act be held criminally responsible for it? The defendant’s mental health is relevant for several purposes. First, someone who is mentally ill, and is found to present a serious danger of causing injury to himself or other people can be involuntarily confined to a mental institution through a noncriminal process known as civil commitment. A person who has been civilly committed has not been found guilty of a criminal act (indeed, the mental illness may involve noncriminal behavior) and can be held only as long as his mental illness presents a continuing danger. Second, a criminal defendant who is mentally ill at the time of trial may be found incompetent to stand trial. Here the issue of mental illness is unrelated to the crime itself. Instead, the question is whether the defendant is able to understand the charges against her and to participate in her defense. It would deprive a defendant of the constitutional right of due process of law to try her when she could not understand what was happening or aid her attorney in presenting a defense. When someone has been found incompetent to stand trial, the state must determine whether she probably will become competent, and either provide treatment or begin civil commitment proceedings. Third, at the other end of the process, a defendant convicted of a capital crime may not be executed if he is mentally incompetent. Courts have always refused to allow the execution of a person who cannot understand that he has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to death, and the Supreme Court has held that it would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment to execute an insane person. The insanity defense distinguishes between those people who are responsible for their acts and those who are not. In a well-worn phrase, the insanity defense distinguishes “the mad from the bad, the sick from the wicked.” Someone who commits an act that otherwise would be criminal because he is psychologically ill does not deserve the condemnation or punishment that criminal law usually metes out. The offender may need to be treated or even confined if no treatment is available, but as a sick person, not as a criminal. Criminal law also aims to deter crime and incapacitate offenders. The mentally ill person who meets the legal definition of insanity typically does not engage in a calculation of the consequences of his acts that can be deterred, so the threat of a criminal sanction is useless. And because the result of a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity is to commit the offender for treatment as long as he presents a danger, the offender is incapacitated and prevented from committing another crime to the extent it is necessary to do so. Although medical testimony at trial is necessary to establish insanity, insanity is a legal concept, not a medical one. The issue of insanity is whether, according to the purposes and principles of criminal law, the defendant had a mental state that is appropriate to hold him criminally responsible for his acts. In most cases of the insanity defense, the defendant had the mental state defined in the offense, but his mental state was so clouded as well that we think it unwise to hold him criminally responsible anyway. Never invoke the insanity defense without the assistance of an experienced Magna Utah criminal defense lawyer. Where someone commits a crime only because they reasonably believe that doing so is the only way to avoid imminent death or serious bodily injury, they have an excuse and are not guilty of the crime. The law recognizes that a person may be forced to choose between two evils and it does not punish someone if they choose the lesser of the two evils. An actor is excused if he does something that is wrong, but we can understand the reasons for doing so and forgive him for it; it wasn’t good that the driver aided the bank robbers, but we would be hard pressed to say he should have sacrificed his life instead. He only participated in the robbery because the robbers said they would kill him if he didn’t, a threat they were apparently ready, willing, and able to carry out. It would do no good to punish his action because we couldn’t deter anyone from acting this way; any person would go along with the robbery even if it meant criminal punishment, because the possibility of punishment is not as bad as the imminent threat of being killed. And what he did was wrong but not too wrong; it would be a different case if the driver, under duress, had shot someone during the course of the robbery. Inchoate crimes refer to the criminal acts that are incomplete or imperfect. Criminal law punishes three inchoate crimes: attempt, solicitation, and conspiracy. Criminal law punishes inchoate offenses for two simple reasons. First, people who engage in attempts, solicitations, or conspiracies are about as dangerous as those who actually commit the crimes. The hit men who don’t shoot accurately, the bosses who plan the hit, and the intermediaries who hire the hit men all are about as culpable as a hit man who actually succeeds. “About” as culpable is a necessary qualification, because there is much debate about whether someone who commits an inchoate offense should be punished as severely as someone who finishes the job. On the one hand, they have the same degree of moral culpability; a gunman who shoots but has bad aim is morally as responsible as one with better aim. On the other hand, they have not caused the same degree of harm, and the law usually doesn’t punish people just for the level of their intent without resulting harm. There is also a practical concern. When a gunman is faced with the same degree of punishment for attempted murder as for murder, if he misses on his first shot he may as well finish the job. Second, establishing inchoate crimes is necessary for law enforcement. A person has not satisfied the elements of an offense, such as murder or prostitution, but they have done something else that suggests that they ought to be punished. An attempt in criminal law is defined much like an attempt in any other sense of the word: someone attempts something when they try to accomplish it. Therefore, the mental element of an attempted crime is the intent to commit the crime. The complications arise with the act element. Most crimes involve a chain of events, beginning with formulating the intention to commit the crime through getting ready for it to committing the act itself. If you have been charged with a crime, an experienced Magna Utah criminal defense lawyer is the first person you should turn to. The lawyer can develop a successful defense strategy based on the facts of your case. Magna Utah Criminal Defense Attorney Free ConsultationWhen you’ve been charged with a crime, whether it is a sex crime, drug crime, theft crime, assault, battery or some of criminal act, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.
Ascent Law LLC
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506
Ascent Law LLC
4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews
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