Maine Divorce Lawyers

The divorce in Maine is inclusive of the following –

• Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender rights
• Mediation / alternative dispute resolution
• Child support
• Collaborative law
• Annulment
• Alimony / spousal support / palimony
• Uncontested divorce
• Restraining orders
• Custody / visitation rights
• Division of property
• Delinquent support payments

Assistants of Maine divorce lawyer

The divorce lawyers in this state are assisted by mediators, facilitators, counselors, aggressive court litigators, psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists. As per the need of the case and the client, the lawyers take the assistance of insurance professionals, appraisers, accountants, substance & alcohol abuse evaluators, forensic evaluators and guardians.

Reasons why a Maine divorce lawyer finds a case complicated

• Family businesses or a self-employed party
• Multiple children with different parents or special needs
• Mental health condition like schizophrenia, bi-polar or depression
• Alcohol or substance abuse or addiction / dependency
• Multi-jurisdictional or foreign state cases

Child support in this state

A table / matrix is used to arrive at the child support figure. The following are considered –

• Respective incomes of the spouses
• Special needs that the children may have
• Other children born to the partners
• Childcare costs
• Health insurance expense
• Ages and residency of the children

Visitation and Child contact

In some circumstances, a reasonable and liberal visitation is awarded. However, in some extreme cases, there is supervised and restricted contact. Depending on the factors in a particular case, the lawyers can guess what would be the decision of the judge in a grandparent-child and parent-child contact and visitation. This helps the lawyers to negotiate a better outcome for their client more cost effectively in the absence of a need of a trial.

Contingent fee

A Contingent fee is a fee paid by a client to a law firm depending on the outcome of the case. In Maine, it is unethical for a lawyer to charge a contingent fee depending on the result of a divorce case. The amount of fee is generally described as a percentage of the recovery. During the initial consultations and meetings between the lawyer and the client, it is discussed whether the client has to pay the set amount of fee and the expenses.

Grounds for divorce

In the courts in this state, the initial document filed by a partner seeking divorce is called as the Complaint for Divorce. Through this document, the partner requests the court to end the marital status using some specific grounds. These grounds are as under –

Fault based grounds –

• Mental illness – medical attention for minimum 7 years
• Abusive and cruel demeanor of one partner towards another
• Cruel and wanton refusal or neglect to offer suitable maintenance of the complaining spouse or non support, when the other partner is sufficiently capable of providing for the spouse
• Habitual drug or alcohol use
• Utter desertion for minimum 3 years
• Extreme cruelty
• Impotence
• Adultery

No-fault based grounds –

• Irreconcilable marital differences

Divorce Papers