Parents Forever: Legal Issues and the Role of Mediation in Divorce Educator Guide

Appendix 1

Glossary of Legal Terms

Adjudication litigation

A court process in which lawyers speak to each other on behalf of their clients and guide their client's disclosure of information. This is a competitive process in which a third person, a judge, determines the winner and loser based on each lawyer's argument, statutory requirements, case decisions, and formal rules, such as discovery and evidence.

Alimony

See "spousal maintenance."

Arbitration

A formal process where each party presents needs, interests, information, and positions to a third party, who then makes a final decision or recommendation.

Child support

Money used for the care, support, and education of children.

Conciliation

A usually voluntary negotiation conducted with the help of a third party, who either brings the disputing parties together to talk or carries information between the parties.

Custodial parent

The parent who will have the major responsibility for living with and caring for the children of the marriage. The parent not living with the children is called the noncustodial parent.

Custody

Types of custody include: legal, joint legal, physical, and joint physical. Legal custody grants the right to make major decisions about the children; in joint legal custody, both parents must cooperate and agree on the important decisions about the children. Physical custody determines where the children live and who makes routine daily decisions about the children; in joint physical custody, the children's living arrangements and routine daily decisions are shared equally between the parents.

Custody study/custody investigation

A court order requiring a neutral party to investigate the ability of each parent to care for and raise the children. It is usually ordered if parents cannot agree on custody.

Dissolution of marriage

The term for the legal termination of a marriage, when the final papers are entered into the court's records.

Judgment and decree

The legal term for the final papers entered in the court records, officially ending the marriage.

Legal annulment

A decision by the court that the couple was never married in the first place.

Legal separation

A legal document or decision by the court allowing a couple to live separately but remain married; the decision includes custody, support, and property settlements.

Marital property

All property that was acquired by the couple during their marriage.

Mediation

A cooperative problem-solving process in which a trained, neutral third party (mediator) privately assists the couple in creating their own separation, divorce, post-divorce, and child-custody settlement.

Negotiation

A voluntary process of problem-solving and bargaining in which the divorcing couple makes its own decisions about settlement without third-party intervention..

No-fault divorce

Minnesota's divorce law is "no-fault." In other words, it is not necessary to prove that one spouse is at fault for the breakup of a marriage. No-fault also means that the fault of either spouse can not be considered in deciding custody, division of property, or any other matter.

Noncustodial parent

The parent not living regularly with the children of the marriage. Normally, this parent will have specified times, called "visitation," with the children.

Nonmarital property

Property that was acquired by either spouse prior to the marriage, or which was given to the spouse alone during the marriage.

Order for protection

A court order protecting one person from another when one person feels threatened, abused, or afraid. Orders are tailored for individual situations and spell out exactly what contact a person may have, and may not have, with the person who asked for the order.

Restraining order

A legal document ordering an abusive person to stop the abuse or harassment.

Spousal maintenance

Money paid by one spouse to the other for their support. The court does not normally award spousal maintenance unless there is a need.

Supervised visitation

A court order that allows the noncustodial parent to spend time with their children only in the presence of a designated person or persons.

Visitation

The legal right of noncustodial parents to spend time with their children.

About the Parents Forever Program

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, this material is available in alternative formats upon request. Please contact your University of Minnesota Extension office or the Extension Store at (800) 876-8636.