Most people hold a formal ceremony to establish their marriage. Married couples get a license and formally record their ceremonial marriage at the courthouse. Oklahoma is among a handful of states that still recognize non-ceremonial marriages, also called “common-law” marriages. These marriages are formed through the consent of the parties who enter into the marriage, [..]
The legal process of divorce does nothing to heal the emotional pain caused by ending a marriage relationship. Filing final papers in court makes you legally single, but healing the damage to your psyche follows an unrelated timetable. Divorce can be even more traumatic than the death of a loved one. Instead of a loss [..]
The U S Supreme Court largely upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) last week. The ACA provides more options in coming years for divorcing families who face health care choices. However, many of the means to the end of making health care more available and affordable remain to be set. [..]
What do you do if both parents have moved from the county where a divorce action is pending, and you don’t like the assigned judge? You try to move the case to another court. The father in Chacon v. Chacon did not succeed in an effort to move his case. Both parents in Chacon were [..]
Oklahoma law now requires an automatic document exchange between parties to a divorce case. When a respondent is served with a summons, or when the respondent files any response, a thirty-day countdown starts. Within that time, unless otherwise agreed by the parties in writing, the petitioner and respondent must each deliver to the other the [..]
One man’s effort to give effect to his private child support arrangement fails for lack of jurisdiction in Oklahoma’s Small Claims Court. The father in Parsons v. Klingamon had been ordered in District Court to pay $250.00 per month in child support to the mother. The 1996 decree did not provide for health insurance as [..]
