Divorce Definitions

Residual Physical Custodial Rights A custody agreement when one parent is awarded visitation by a pre-arranged schedule worked out between the parents or the courts. Joint custody A form of child custody that grants both parents joint legal custody, joint physical custody, or both joint legal custody and joint physical custody. Divorce agreement A divorce agreement spells out the terms of the divorce and the relationship between the two spouses after the divorce. These agreements usually cover property division, child custody and child plans, debt division, spousal support, and any other relevant issues related to the divorce. Age of Majority Attained upon one's eighteenth birthday. However, a child support order will remain in effect beyond attainment of eighteen as long as the child continuously attends an accredited high school on a full time basis, the child is determined to be mentally or physically disabled by the court, or both parents have agreed to continue support after the age of 18 and it is incorporated in a divorce decree. Reimbursement Alimony Reimbursement alimony, as the name implies, is designed to reimburse one spouse for expenses occurred by the other. Temporary alimony A type of alimony payment that is made to one spouse pending separation or divorce proceedings. Custodial parent The parent who has physical custody of the children. Absolute divorce A divorce in which the marriage is completely dissolved and both parties become single. Legal Separation A court order arranging the terms (custody, support, etc.) under which a married couple will live separately. This addresses the same issues as divorce, but does not completely dissolve the marriage. Buccal Swab A recognized form of genetic testing used to determine paternity, which involves a q-tip type instrument for collecting saliva from individuals submitting to testing.

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	Did You Know?
	An annulment is a court ruling that a supposed marriage was never valid. One of the most common grounds for annulment is fraud. For example, one person may have not disclosed to the other a prior divorce, a criminal record, or an unwillingness to have sexual intercourse. An annulment also may be granted may if one of the parties to the "marriage” was still married to someone else at the time of the marriage that is at issue. Other bases for annulments include marriage of an underage person, marriage to too close a blood relative, and marriage by a person under duress as the time of marriage.