South Carolina Divorce Laws

South Carolina Divorce Laws
South Carolina divorce laws are fairly limited in the respect that there are only a handful of grounds under which you can file. This article will take a look at the grounds for divorce in South Carolina, as well as the implications of a divorce for children and property.

First of all, in order to even file for divorce in South Caroline you must meet the minimum residency requirements. If you don’t meet these requirements, the court can’t legally hear your case.

If either you or your spouse no longer live in South Carolina, at least one of your needs to have been a resident in the state for a minimum of one year prior to the divorce proceedings. In the situation where you both live in South Carolina, the person filing the divorce only needs to have been resident for a minimum of three months before filing.

South Carolina Grounds for Divorce
South Carolina is unlike many other states in the sense that it makes no provision for a mutual voluntary divorce on the basis of irreconcilable differences. The only No Fault grounds for divorce in South Carolina is the situation in which the spouses have been separate without living together for one continuous year.

There are also four grounds for divorce in South Carolina based on a fault of one of the spouses. The first of these, which is present in the laws of most states, is adultery.

The next grounds for divorce is desertion by one spouse of the other for a period lasting 12 months or more. The difference between this and the above mentioned No Fault grounds for divorce is that the separation occurs against the will of one spouse – in other words, one spouse intentionally abandons the other with no intention of returning.

The third grounds for divorce is cruelty, which in South Carolina is limited to physical cruelty. This is different from many other states, most of which allow for situations where emotional abuse is taking place, or one spouse deliberately inflicts suffering on the other by non-physical means.

Last of all, South Carolina divorce laws also list habitual drunkenness as a grounds for divorce. The law also states that this is not limited to the consumption of alcohol. The term drunkenness here is applied to an altered state resulting from the use of any drug, which results in an inability to function properly as a marital partner.

Child Custody and Visitation Rights
The court in South Carolina aims to meet the best interests of the children produced by a marriage when considering who should have custody. In South Carolina, the child’s desire to stay with one parent is also taken into account. How much weight the court gives to the child’s own decisions depends on his or her age and maturity level. Other factors include the grounds under which the divorce occurred, particularly if domestic violence is an issue. South Carolina is unlike a lot of other states is the sense that they also consider the religion of each parent in deciding who will have custody.

South Carolina Property Distribution
South Carolina requires that in cases where spouses can’t distribute property between each other voluntarily, the court will divide it up in an equitable way. This means the court will divide up the marital property in accordance with what is deemed to be fair for each spouse.

One of the first considerations the court will take into account is the length of the marriage. Other factors include the current income of each spouse as well as future earning potential. You can see how these factors can be interlinked, as the length of the marriage and the decisions each spouse makes throughout a long marriage can have effects on income and earning potential – for instance, if one spouse gives up an education in order to focus on raising the children.

Spousal Support and Child Support
One of the major concerns for someone considering a divorce is the issue of ongoing child support or spousal support payments. Under South Carolina divorce laws, child support payments are worked out according to the Income Shares Model of calculation, although the amount worked out by this calculation can be changed if it is demonstrated that is does not line up with the general principles surrounding child support payments.

Some of these principles in South Carolina law include the way the marital property has been distributed and any debts that each spouse may have. Other factors include whether the child earns his or her own income or a situation where the parent without custody earns much less than the parent with custody. Similar guidelines are used to determine whether one spouse will have to make spousal support payments.

SBI!