Anatomy of the Family Law Case
A family is a group of individuals related by blood, by marriage or even by law within two or three generations. It can also be a group of people sharing a common commitment to a domestic relationship or traditionally two individuals who are married together with their biological or legally adopted children (Eekelaar, 2017). It can also be defined as a collective body of individuals which include a child and a parent or legal custodian or an adult relative living together and given responsibility by law, marriage or blood. So, in marriage, there must be a legal qualification to get married, agreement from both parties and a marriage contract which is a requirement of the law.
Marriage as a contract to state
Marriages currently are regulated by states and involve the signing of a legal agreement between the parties. However, for an individual to enter into a contract, they must meet the statutory requirement of a contract such as; must be over the age of 18 years with the mental capacity to sign a contract (Petroni, Das & Sawyer, 2018). Additionally, a person cannot be married to two living individuals or any close relative. One can still marry at a younger age but only if, the court or the parents’ give consent. The state controls all of this.
Furthermore, a person can declare his/her marriage invalid through the court if in case you or your spouse were not in a good mental state when you got married, or if someone forced you into getting married, or if there is a physical disability that prevents you from having sex with your spouse.
For an individual to get married, there is a process involved such as obtaining a marriage license and having the marriage ceremony conducted by an individual permitted to do so (Bix, 2016). In New York, the license is obtained from the town clergy or city clergy which then must be delivered to the magistrate or clergy member who will perform the ceremony within two months. All of this is as required by the law. If in case the persons do not want to have a marriage ceremony, then they can get married through the signing of a marriage contract which is witnessed by at least two people. This kind of marriage contract must then be acknowledged by the individuals and the witnesses in front of a judge
Benefits conferred by marriage.
- Benefits from the government
The state, local governments’ and the federal make laws and regulation that govern the operation of the society. Married persons get benefits from the government such as the tax benefits which enables the couple to file joined tax returns and also eligibility to create a family partnership under the federal tax laws which can allow a person to divide income from family business among family members.
Besides, a couple gets estate planning benefits such as inheritance of shares of your spouse estate in case of death. There is also an exemption from estate taxes and gift taxes for the property you acquire or those your spouse leaves to you (Petroni, Das & Sawyer, 2018). There is also that benefit of priority if your spouse needs help to make any financial or medical decisions on behalf of the person.
Furthermore, each spouse automatically becomes eligible to family-related benefits from the government such as medicare, veteran and military benefits for coupled for example those for education, medical care, and social security and public assistance benefits and even workers compensation death benefits.
- Benefits in the private sector
In addition to what the government can offer, married individuals can also enjoy other benefits from the private sector which are in different ways regulated by the state government. For example, employment benefit such as insurance obtained through spouse employer. The individual can be given leave such as family medical leave and right to employee retirement benefits.
There are also medical benefits, for example, a spouse cannot be restricted to visit one another and can even make medical decisions on behalf of the other if he/ she can’t, this is if there is no medical power of the attorney is present. However, in the case where the couple later agrees to divorce each of them has a right to ask for spousal support and even property rights including child support.
- Family status benefits
When a person marries, one automatically become one’s spouse’s immediate next of kin, which gives the ability to consent to any medical procedures in the cases of emergencies and also enjoying specials rights to visit your spouse (Hageanu, 2018). The spouse can also give direction on disposing remains of his/her deceased spouse in case of any disputes. A spouse also has legal rights to sue a third party person for example for interfering with their marriage success of even causing the death of their spouse. There are also rights to obtaining immigration and resident benefit for individuals who are not citizens of the state.
The process of ending spousal relationships and their challenges
There are many ways a marital relationship can end which include annulment, divorce and declaring that the relationship was null. In the case of annulment, the relationship is declared invalid even if it was valid when you got married. Some of the reasons are if the person was too young to consent the marriage or if the person had no mental capacity to allow the marriage, if consent was obtained by force or fraud and if the person lacks the physical capacity to consummate the marriage. an individual can also consider annulment if one of the spouses has an incurable mental illness for more than five years (Lowe & Douglas, 2015). After cancellation, the marriage is considered null; however, any children of the marriage are considered legitimate, and the court can order for custody, visitation, and financial support. The court can also order on the division of property.
The other form of ending a spousal relationship is through the filling of divorce action of which one needs to serve his/ her with a summons with a complaint for divorce and another with notice of the action. An uncontested divorce is easy since the other person is cooperating (Schadler, 2016). There are conditions to divorce for example in New York one must state the reason for divorce in the state and at least one spouse should have lived in New York for the last 12 months.
On the other way, spousal relationship can if declared null in the cases of incest, marriage when you had already married to another person legally or if the marriage ceremony was conducted by a person not legally permitted.
Unfortunately, ending a relationship comes with its challenges; for example, there will be intense guilt that may be experienced by the partner because of their lousy spouse behavior. Others result to anger and bitterness with emotional stress which might lead from the separation, this might look simple, but it is a big challenge to raise children and adjusting to life changes easily (Eekelaar, 2017). The issue of division of property might also become a challenge, and it doesn’t result in mutual agreements all the time and might sound unfair to the other.
Reference
Bix, B. H. (2016). Marriage Agreements and Religion. U. Ill. L. Rev., 1665.
Eekelaar, J. (2017). Family law and personal life. Oxford University Press.
Hageanu, C. (2018). The Property Benefits of the Divorce Due to the Exclusive Fault of One of the Spouses. Romanian Rev. Priv. L., 155.
Lowe, N. V., & Douglas, G. (2015). Bromley's family law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Schadler, C. (2016). How to Define Situated and Ever‐Transforming Family Configurations? A New Materialist Approach. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 8(4), 503-514.
Petroni, S., Das, M., & Sawyer, S. M. (2018). Protection versus rights: age of marriage versus age of sexual consent. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
