Family law

1.      The client has been married for over two years. He lives with his wife in a rented apartment, they jointly bear housing costs. During their marriage they bought a car and household equipment. The marriage is childless.

Questions and tasks:

a)      Describe legal possibilities of the client who intends to get divorced because he found a new girlfriend who he wants to live with.

b)      Explain the formal process of divorce in the mentioned case and consider the fastest and least problematic way to the target set by the client.

c)      What is legally required to be solved before the divorce petition is filed?

d)      Write down the divorce petition (outline), provided that both spouses agreed upon divorce and all related matters.

a)      If the client really insists on divorce and the situation can not be solved in a different way, he must resolve the legal question of housing, settlement of common property and resolve mutual maintenance. In the first place, it is necessary to find out the attitude of the wife, whether that procedure will be accepted by her and under what conditions. Moving out of the apartment may be a problem, as this could cause losing of claim on the rental apartment for the client.

b)      The quickest and least problematic is the agreed divorce pursuant to § 24a of the Act on the Family. The assumption is drafting a written agreement with notarized signatures, where the spouses solve the legal issues (housing, common property and maintenance obligations). Then it is possible to sue for divorce, which must be joined by both participants.

c)      Before filing sue for divorce, relations to minors have to be only resolved. If this is the so-called classical divorce, questions of housing, common property of spouses or maintenance are dealt after the divorce (if the spouses fail to agree such matters).

d)      Requirements of sue for divorce will be: designation of the court, the spouses, description of the case – sue for divorce under § 24a of the Family Act (agreed), statement of special circumstances (when the marriage was established, that the couple is childless, where the married couple live, that there was a settlement of marital and other conditions for an agreed divorce, identification of evidence (marriage certificate, copy of agreement), the plea, date and signature.

2.      The clients are divorced. They divorced in a so-called traditional way and do not know how to cope the common property. Their main property has been a common housing unit.

Questions and tasks:

a)     Advice them how to proceed in a situation where the ex-wife still lives in their shared apartment and the ex-husband moved to his parents. Do they intend to leave all the consumables acquired during the marriage together; will they remain to the ex-wife in the apartment (Will the ex-husband take a car)?

b)     How would you modify housing conditions of the ex-husband and ex-wife? What effect is there that the ex-husband moved out?

c)      Is it possible to solve the situation by the court? When?

d)     Do you know any claims that may be (legally) required by the ex-spouses to each other after the dissolution of marriage?

3.      A citizen of Macedonia intends to marry a Czech in a short time.

Questions and tasks:

a)     What will fall into the common property of the spouses if they are planning to build a house on the land that is owned only by the Czech?

b)     What will happen with the possessions that the spouses acquired before the marriage – a car, money, gifts from parents?

c)      What meaning would be in this context attributed to the fact that the Macedonian does business?

d)     Can you narrow or broaden the common property of the spouses? How? What is a marriage agreement?

4.      A client would like to divorce. He and his wife have a minor son and he knows that he must resolve all relationships to the minors before the divorce.

Questions and tasks:

a)     First, write down an outline of filing which is to be substantiated to adjust the conditions to a minor child.

b)     Then, try to formulate a defence proposal that will address (i) custody, (ii) the amount of alimony and (iii) contact of the child with a parent (who has the child in custody).

c)      What steps would you recommend, if you knew that the wife of the client does not agree on divorce and her cooperation can not be expected at all?

d)     Explain how the civil trial proceeds, and try to compare it with tangible and procedural legal preconditions of divorce (§ 24a of the Family Code).

a)      The requirements of the filing: designation of the court, of the mother and father, the minor child and the case – adjustment of conditions to the minor child after divorce, or even for the period before the divorce, expressions of relevant circumstances (when the marriage was created, when the minor was born, where the family lives, what are financial conditions of the parents, what are normal and extraordinary expenses of all participants of proceedings (marriage certificate, birth certificate, the amount of income, proofs of expenses and other income, such as tax returns), the proposal of legal action, date and signature.

b)      1. The minor child is entrusted into the care of his mother after the divorce. 2. The father of the minor child is obliged to contribute to the maintenance of the minor child by the amount of 3,000 CZK per month from the final judgment on divorce; the amount is payable by the 20^th of the month in the hands of the mother of the minor. 3. The father of the minor is entitled to see the minor every odd week at the weekend, 14 days during the summer holidays, a week over Christmas holidays and a week during spring holidays, always according to father’s wishes. The father receives and returns the son at his place of residence.

c)      First, it is necessary to file a proposal for adjustment of conditions of the minor child. Then a legal action for divorce is filed – to accelerate things it is possible to bring the action earlier, but the court interrupts divorce proceedings until the decision of the court on trust relationship to the child. It is to be expected that the wife’s appeal can be filed against the decision of the trust court in a divorce case.

d)      Concerning the conventional divorce, it is necessary to prove within the evidence proceedings that the marriage is so deeply and permanently disrupted, that its restoration can not be expected – the court examines the causes of divorce, including infidelity, alcoholism, conflicts, arguments, etc. The court does not have to divorce the marriage. But at the agreed divorce according to § 24a of the Act on the family, the evidence proceedings does not take place, and if all the conditions are met, the court must divorce the marriage. The preconditions of the agreed divorce are the previous settlement of common property, mutual resolve of maintenance and housing. This action for divorce must be joined by the other participant.