What Is the Meaning of a Legal Separation?
Legal separation is an arrangement between a married couple that is distinct from divorce or trial separation. It does not go as far as divorce in dissolving their legal union, but has the added recognition of a court, and its attendant stipulations, that trial separation lacks. Legal separation is relatively rare, because couples looking for a cooling-off period that could potentially lead to being reunited generally opt for trial separation, while the vast majority looking to terminate their union choose divorce.
Other People Are Reading
-
Features
-
Trial separation occurs when a couple decide to temporarily end their cohabitation. This is a personal decision that does not involve the courts, and the couple may or may not choose to reconcile. During the trial separation period, there is no change in their legal status as a married couple. Legal separation also does not change the status of the couple, but makes definite decisions about the division of the couple's property. Legal separation results in the issuance of court orders awarding temporary child custody, child support, alimony or other division of property.
Function
-
Legal separation is occasionally sought when a married couple are opposed to divorce for religious concerns. It is also a way to keep some of the benefits of marriage, such as insurance coverage, pension benefits, or preferential tax treatment, while also maintaining a strict enforceable boundary between the individuals and their assets. In this latter case, spouses should carefully read the terms of their pensions and insurance policies, because many now stipulate that legal separation can carry the same effect as divorce.
-
Time Frame
-
Another reason couples seek legal separation is because the divorce process itself can be time-consuming. Many states have mandatory cooling-off periods that begin once a divorce petition is served and which prevent any action being taken on the divorce for 30 to 90 days. Because the issues faced by a couple going through divorce can be immediate, it's not uncommon for them to file for legal separation to clarify access to or ownership of certain assets and child custody during the cooling-off period while the other aspects of the divorce are negotiated.
Effects
-
Once the court goes through the trouble of reviewing a married couple's assets and making preliminary decisions about how those assets would be equitably divided, it generally does not move backward. In other words, the decisions made during a legal separation regarding alimony, child support, custody and other matters generally set the tone of how a full divorce would unfold. Though the terms of the legal separation are not binding in a divorce settlement agreement, the two do tend to be consistent. Thus, if entering into a legal separation, it is important not to enter into agreements that you would not want to see made permanent in a divorce.
Considerations
-
Legal separation is not divorce. It might look and feel like divorce if the spouses do not live together, have distinguished and keep separate their property and accounts, and do not interact. But the two are still legally married and cannot remarry without going through a formal divorce. Depending on the state, a couple that are legally separated might or might not have to repeat the process all over again to obtain a divorce.
-
