Oklahoma Divorce Legal Questions

I assume your hearing is a Request for Orders to Modify the prior visitation orders because your ex-wife plans to move and wants to take the children with her (thereby making a change in the schedule necessary). If so, the Judge will decide whether the children will move with her and visit you, or will stay living with you and visit with her. The two of you will probably also need to try to resolve the issue by mutual agreement before court. If you can't come to an agreement, then the Judge will decide based on how much time each of you current spend with the children, how much each of you are involved with their schooling, their teachers, their medical care, their homework, their extra-curricular activities, trying to determine which home will be in their best interest to try to preserve as much stability as possible in determining their best interests.... Read More

The answer depends on your relative incomes, the length of time you were married, your respective ages and health, etc. In California and most other states the issue of who left who or who was being unfaithful has nothing to do with the issue. You should consult a family law attorney in your area as soon as possible.... Read More

Montana law controls compliance with a decree in Montana. If Montana law resembles Oklahoma law, the decree will contain a prohibition of either party marrying again for a period of six months from the date of the decree, unless the parties remarry each other. If that provision exists, marrying within the six month period could subject you to a contempt of court situation, if anyone chose to pursue it.... Read More

If a court minute (a hand written order signed by the judge) has been signed by the judge granting the divorce, the divorce is final even if the formal typed decree has not been signed. Additionally, if the judge granted the divorce in person in court, the divorce is final even if the terms have not been reduced to writing. If the judge has not officially granted the divorce and you are waiting for the paperwork to be signed by all parties before presenting it to the judge, then your spouse and his/her lawyer must sign the decree before the judge will sign it and grant the divorce.... Read More

It assures that each person will either pay their owns debts, or, if the other person is forced to pay them, reimburse that person, including attorney's fees and costs.  The other language is unnecessary in a chapter 7 bankruptcy as all such obligations are not dischargeable without such language. However, in a chapter 13, the indemnification would be dischargeable.  The court sought to prevent that by calling it support which is not dischargeable under any chapter of bankruptcy. ... Read More

The best thing you could do is start an action for divorce or legal separation and have the summons and Petition served on him as absolutely soon as possible.  Since the title is in your name, theoretically he can't do anything with it, but I have had cases where one spouse forged another's to a car title and got a new title issued.  It then became a swearing match whether consent had been given for signing the other's name on the title.  Filing an action for Divorce or legal separation creates an AUTOMATIC TEMPORARY INJUNCTION that goes into effect against him (the non-filing spouse) as soon as the papers are served on him.  If you can get him served before he does anything with the car, he will be in contempt of court, and you won't have to debate whether you had given him permission to sign your name on the title. Under Oklahoma law it does not matter whose name is on an asset; if it was acquired during the marriage by joint industry and effort, it is a marital asset.  An exception is made for property acquired as a gift to one spouse and not the other, but you will have the burden to prove he intended to give it to you as a gift.... Read More

To be common law married in Oklahoma you have to have the intent to be married and to hold yourselves out to the public as a married couple. Usually this entails filing taxes jointly, having joint checking accounts, and introducing each other as husband and wife. Your situation is different. You cannot be married at all because your "spouse/boyfriend" is not eligible to marry you because he is still married to another person. If the divorce was never finalized they are still legally married and you cannot marry him and he cannot legally marry any other person.... Read More

Oklahoma law is the same as federal.  It is illegal to intercept or record a conversation (telephone or otherwise) unless at least one of the parties to the conversation consents.  For example, you can record any conversation you are a party to.  You can't record a conversation you are not a party to unless one of the people who is a party to it has knowledge and consents to the recording.  You could therefore have software on your own phone that records all the conversations (so long as you don't let anyone else use it without telling them), but you can't put one on somebody else's phone without their consent.... Read More

You must make a diligent search for him and at least attempt certified mail service on him at his last known address.  If the court is satisfied you have made a diligent search and could not find him, you can serve him by publishing a notice in a newspaper of adequate circulation.  If he doesn't respond to being served by publication, you can take a default judgment against him.  Beware that if he shows up later and tries to set aside the judgment, he will be given a lot of latitude to do so.  also, if he has never lived in Oklahoma or otherwise does not have significant connections with Oklahoma, the only relief the Court can give you is to dissolve the marital bonds.  No property division or other financial matters may be addressed... Read More