Dayton Family Law Blog

When parents divorce, custody of the children will be among the most important legal issues to settle. However, the professionals at Hartley Law Office, LLC, understand that parents are not the only adults who matter in a child's life. Grandparents can be vital caregivers and role models for their grandchildren, and sometimes, grandparents' rights to be part of their grandchildren's lives need to be asserted through the legal system.

Take a scenario in which grandparents are actively involved in after-school care for their grandchildren a few nights a week, perhaps one or two weekend days or even more during summer vacations. They provide transportation, plan and provide meals and often purchase day-to-day necessities like clothes and school supplies. And, of course, they are present for their grandchildren during these times as friends and people who care about them, whether playing, talking, or working on projects together.

Dayton residents will likely be familiar with the name, Mary J. Blige, the Grammy-winning singer. What they may not know is that for years, Blige claims, she and her husband, Kendu Isaacs, struggled through a bitter high-asset divorce.

The couple has been together since 2003, and while they have no children together, Isaacs has three children from a prior marriage to whom Blige became a stepmother. The singer claimed that she took on more than $10 million in debt as the lone financial provider in the marriage. She also noted in her divorce filing that her husband spent over $400,000 of their money on an affair with another woman. While the terms of their recently-finalized contentious divorce are confidential, upon Blige's filing for divorce in 2016, the court awarded Isaacs temporary spousal support of $30,000 a month.

When an Ohio couple decides to divorce, one of the issues that is often up for dispute is the marital property and which party will receive what. There are certain aspects of the case to remember based on the law. One is how a distributive award works. A distributive award is any payment that is made whether it is real or personal property, is paid over time or in a lump sum, is in a fixed amount, is made via income or separate property, has not be made via marital property, and is not considered child support.

With distributive property, the court can use it as a supplement, to effectuate or facilitate how marital property is divided with the right to have the award secured via lien on the marital property or separate property owned by the paying spouse. Rather than dividing marital property to have equity in the divorce, the court can choose to make a distributive award if it is decided that division of these properties is not practical or poses too much of a burden on the paying spouse.

At Hartley Law Office, PLLC, our professionals know that the only thing in life that remains constant is change. Sometimes, it's pervasive changes that lead Dayton couples to end their marriage and get a divorce.

At the moment a court grants a divorce, many arrangements are locked in by the court, including child custody. Perhaps the arrangements are something both partners agree with, or can at least live with. One or both may be unhappy with the child support arrangements, but a court will only modify a child custody arrangement if a parent can present a convincing argument as to why such a modification is in the best interests of the child.