You may have been recently served with papers that request a divorce and require that you appear before a Court Commissioner on your spouse's request for temporary orders. Temporary orders are orders that last while the divorce is pending. Divorce can take several months and even more than a year. Often, one spouse has been the primary caretaker of the children and the other has been the primary financial provider. The problem is that the spouse who is the primary caretaker of the children does not have the money to care for the children while the action is pending. Likewise, the parent who is the primary financial provider might feel like he or she is not allowed to see the children.
We consider a motion for temporary orders one of the most important steps in the divorce. Well over 90% of cases settle before ever going to trial. You cannot confuse the meaning between a hearing and a trial. Think of a hearing as a mini-trial where the court is confronted with only a few limited issues. A trial is much bigger, usually lasting several hours or even several days. A hearing will last five to twenty minutes.
At the hearing for temporary orders, the court is going to determine which parent will be the primary caretaker of the children, who will get to stay in the house, whether and how much alimony will be awarded, how much child support, etc. The order is temporary by law, but practically it is permanent for one very simple reason: Why would anyone agree to take less than they already have.
That means that if you are awarded primary custody, alimony, possession of the home and a big chunk of child support in the temporary orders, you are probably going to end up with something similar in the final decree.
For that reason, it is important to have a good divorce lawyer from the beginning to make sure that you can do well at the first hearing. If you don’t do well, then your spouse will drag out the divorce and make you agree to concessions you might not have had to agree to if you had a favorable temporary order.
If you are looking for a divorce lawyer in South Jordan or the surrounding area, look no further. Give us a call and come in for a consultation.