A couple marry in Massachusetts. The couple adopt a child.

The couple move to Texas. One partner files for divorce.

The divorce culminates in a two day trial deciding proerty division and parenting of the couple’s child.

The family court in Austin, Texas grants the couple’s divorce. Subsequently, the Texas Attorney General intervenes to challenge the divorce.

The couple are lesbians. And Texas does not recognize homosexual marriages.

Where there is no legally valid marriage, there can be no divorce. Or so the Attorney General maintains.

And so an appellate court in Dallas concluded on similar facts. But that was Dallas.

Once the intermediate level appellate court in Austin rules, the losing party will likely take the case to the state’s supreme court.

Read more in this Austin Statesman article: Court urged to void Travis County gay divorce.

Fourteen member nations of the European Union have agreed to adopt special rules governing divorces of international couples. The new rules will go into effect in a year and a half.

International couples are couples where each partner is from, or lives in, a different European Union nation.

About thirteen percent of the European Union’s one hundred twenty-two million marriages involve international couples.

Under these rules, the couple can agree upon which nation’s rules will control their divorce, provided that the couple has a strong connection to the chosen country.

If the couple can’t reach agreement, then the new rules determine which nation’s law will apply to an international couple’s divorce.

The claimed purpose of the new rules is to squelch the filing spouse shopping for the most advantageous country to file in and then racing the other spouse to file first.

The new procedures have some glaring omissions though.

No country will be required to end a marriage that its own law does not recognize as valid.

Further, the choice of law really only applies to grounds for divorce and/or separation, as the case may be.

The new rules do not apply to legal capacity, annulment, property division, parental responsibility, child support or spousal support.

It’s not clear that the new rules will really thwart shopping for the nation with the most favorable divorce laws, but they may be a first step in that direction.

Read more in this European Parliament press release: Divorcing international couples can choose which law governs their break-up.

As the song says, breaking up is hard to do.

In fact, it is dreaded so much by so many, that one stalwart soul has decided to offer to do it for pretty much anyone who doesn’t want to do it themselves … for a nominal fee, of course.

So, operating under the says-it-all trade name “iDump4U”, said stalwart soul will be the bearer of the following bad breakup news:

• you want to end a casual dating relationship

• you want to call off your engagement

• you want a divorce

For between $10 and $50, your unpleasant message is delivered with, uh, style … by someone who is … not you …

Via video and/or phone call.

Many people do obsess over how to broach the subject of divorce with their spouse.

For some of them, this may be an option to consider. Or not …

Read more in this [Northern] Kentucky Post article: Website offers break-up services.

Husband recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and his unsecured debts (such as credit card debts) were discharged (canceled).

Now Husband and Wife are unable to pay their mortgage.

Husband and Wife apply for a mortgage modification.

Their Bank puts them on a trial loan modification reduced payment schedule while it reviews their loan application.

Husband fears that, if their application is denied, they will have accumulated a significant delinquency on their mortgage.

Can Husband file bankruptcy again, this time for a repayment plan rather than to discharge his debts?

According to a bankruptcy advisor, if the loan modification is denied, Husband can indeed file for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and thereby reduce his and Wife’s monthly payments on their mortgage delinquency.

And Wife doesn’t have to file bankruptcy along with Husband to accomplish it.

This is an increasingly common strategy among the many people in need of mortgage modifications.

Including those going through a divorce, or planning to divorce.

Read more in this Bankrate.com column: Second bankruptcy may spare home, spouse.

Husband and Wife’s four year old Child is in foster care, placed with Wife’s ex-boss.

Husband and Wife are now seeking custody of Child.

Child is in foster care because Wife pleaded guilty to statutory rape.

Because Wife became pregant with Child when she was in her thirties … and Husband was fifteen years old.

And that is when Husband and Wife married, despite the twenty-two year difference between their ages, and Husband being a child under the law.

(The marriage was allowed under Georgia law – at that time – due to Wife’s pregnancy. The law has since changed, reportedly.)

Husband and Wife’s efforts to gain custody of Child are denied. But Husband is awarded greater timesharing with Child.

Read more in this UPI article: Judge nixes custody request of teen, wife.

Roughly half of all marriages fail. That’s the good news.

Roughly two thirds of second marriages fail. That’s the bad news.

And that is part of the reason that marriage is on the decline, and cohabitation is gaining wider and wider popularity.

So much so that thirty-nine percent of Americans surveyed believe marriage is becoming obsolete.

The odds of second marriages succeeding rise where the partners have learned from their unsuccessful first marriages and try to do better the second time around.

Interestingly though, the couples more likely to give marriage another shot tend to be better educated and more privileged.

Cohabitation may work OK for partners without children, but children are more likely to thrive in households where the partners are married rather than cohabiting.

Read more in this New York Times series: Room for Debate: Why Remarry?.

Right after parents split up, before any court orders are entered regarding custody and visitation, one or both parents often experience anxiety over the possibility of the other parent’s early or unapproved pickup of their child from school.

Unless and until a court orders otherwise, as a natural guardian of their child, the other parent has rights too.

Sometimes, in certain circumstances, to a parent, it may feel as though “that’s bad enough” but …

Son is a high school student in Delaware.

Suspect goes to Son’s school to pick Son up early.

School district policy prohibits anyone except a parent or legal guardian (or a third person with written authorization from a parent or legal guardian) from “signing” a student out of school early.

But Suspect is able to do so just the same. A so-called “mix-up”.

Son is returned the same day, but warrants are issued for Suspect’s arrest.

It is unclear whether Son knew Suspect or had any relationship to him.

Read more in this Milford [DE] Beacon news article: Milford police search for man who signed out high school boy without parental consent.

Wedding approaching?

• Anticipating an inheritance?

• Active in a family owned business?

• Have children from a previous marriage you want to provide for?

• Accumulated premarital property?

These are just a few of the circumstances in which a prenuptial agreement, or prenup, should be considered.

Without a prenup, what happens in the event of a divorce, or one spouse’s death, can be uncertain or simply not what the spouses intended.

With a prenuptial agreement, intended spouses can reduce uncertainty and exert control over issues like property division and alimony in the event of a divorce, and inheritance in the event of a spouse’s death.

They may not be romantic, but prenups permit post-divorce (or post-death) financial affairs to be settled more rapidly, less expensively and more predictably.

Read more in this Local Tech Wire release: Premarital agreements – Hoping for the best, planning for the worst.

German Husband and Wife have a Dog, which they adopted together during their marriage.

Husband and Wife legally separate.

Husband and Wife agree that Dog will live with Husband.

Wife, however, wants to visit Dog twice a week.

Husband opposes that.

A German appellate court takes Husband’s side, ruling that legally separated or divorcing spouses have no rights to visitation or timesharing with pets of the marriage.

The German ruling is consistent with the law regarding visitation with pets prevailing in the United States.

Read more in this Expatica article: A separated spouse has no right to see pets: German court.

Controlling behavior in a relationship, such as monitoring a partner’s calls and text messages, or trying to influence what clothing he or she wears, might indicate a pattern of behavior culminating in abuse and violence.

So concludes a doctoral student in psychology and a team of psychologists conducting a study at the University of Arizona.

The coercive need for control is what gives rise to abusive behavior, not anger. Without regard to gender.

And violence is not a reflection of loss of control, but a means to achieve control, through fear.

The study also finds that men and women engage in similar coercive behaviors and abusive tactics.

One key conclusion of the study is that anger management training, widely ordered in criminal domestic violence cases and sometimes in restraining order cases, doesn’t really address the real problem.

Abuse, as defined by the study, includes psychological abuse, sexual assault, intimidation, coercion, physical abuse, threats and more aggressive physical violence.

Read more in this University of Arizona News article: Coercive Habits Lead to Intimate Partner Abuse.