One of the only things we can be certain will be a constant throughout our lives is change. One incident that brings more change than almost any other is divorce. Divorce will mean big changes for you and your spouse, as well as your children. You may need to move to a new town, go back to school to raise your earning capacity, and restructure your budget to reflect your new financial situation. If you share children with your spouse, you will need a divorce and custody order that states how the children’s time is to be divided and sets a child support obligation. Although divorce means big changes in almost all areas of your life, the status quo maintained by you and your spouse during your marriage can have a big impact on your divorce.

One way it has a big impact is in child custody and parenting time issues. In a divorce, a court will make an order for the children’s custody based on what is in their best interest. The court will look at a list of factors in the Minnesota statute to decide what is best for the children. One of these factors is who has traditionally been the primary caregiver for the children. Courts highly value stability for children, so keeping the status quo of who has usually be the one to do most of the parenting often carries significant weight with the court.

Another way the status quo will matter in your divorce is financial issues, especially in terms of temporary division of bills. If one spouse, for example, has been the one to always pay the cell phone bills while the other spouse has always paid the credit card bill, it is likely that the court will order the parties to continue to carry on in the way the parties have traditionally handled their financial affairs until they get to a final hearing.

Finally, the status quo can have an impact with respect to property division. If the parties are unable to come to an agreement as to how personal property is divided, the court will look to a variety of factors to decide how that item should be distributed. If one of the parties has traditionally been the one to use that item, he or she is more likely to be awarded that item in the divorce.

Call us today at (320) 299-4249 and let us help you. We can answer your questions about divorce and about your goals.