What You Need to Know About Getting a Divorce in Oklahoma

If you are planning on getting a divorce in Oklahoma, you should be told that divorce can be very stressful. Most people who decide to break up their marriage due to constant stress are shocked to find out that the divorce process is even more stressful and emotionally demanding than they thought. As stressful as your marriage is, the divorce process and divorce may be worse.

The first thing you need to know about getting a divorce in Oklahoma is that you must be a resident of Oklahoma for a least 6 consecutive months before going to the district court to file a petition for divorce. You must file a verified petition for divorce in the county where you or your spouse has resided for at least 30 consecutive days prior to filing your divorce petition.

In an action for divorce, if the divorcing parties have minor children, there is typically a 90 day waiting period between the time a divorce can be granted by the court and the filing date of the petition. Any divorces that do not involve minor children can be finalized in as little as 10 days from the date of filing the petition for divorce.

Before getting a divorce in Oklahoma, you need to know that support alimony is the payment of a sum certain from one party to the other. Support alimony may be ordered in a divorce proceeding in addition to child support. Whether support alimony payments are appropriate in a case depends upon one party's need for support and the other's ability to pay support alimony. Support alimony is considered taxable income to the receiving party. Alimony in lieu of property division is separate and distinct from support alimony. Often the division of marital property can be difficult when dealing with marital assets such as a family owned business. The party responsible for paying alimony in lieu of property division is typically awarded an asset, and ordered to pay the opposing party alimony in lieu of property division for the other party's share of the value of the marital asset.

Oklahoma is an equitable distribution state as such, in contested divorce actions; property and debt are divided by the court according to what the court decides to be an equitable division of property and debt between the parties. An equitable division does not necessarily mean an equal (50/50) division of the property.

What you should also know about getting a divorce in Oklahoma is that the court may grant the care, custody, and control of a child to either parent or to the parents jointly. In awarding the custody of a minor unmarried child or in appointing a general guardian for said child, the court shall consider what appears to be in the best interests of the physical and mental and moral welfare of the child.

The legal grounds for divorce include any of the following causes:

o Adultery.
o Impotency
o Abandonment for one year
o When the wife at the time of her marriage, was pregnant by another than her husband.
o Extreme cruelty.
o Fraudulent contract.
o Incompatibility
o Habitual drunkenness.
o Gross neglect of duty.
o Imprisonment of the other party in a state or federal penal institution under sentence thereto for the commission of a felony at the time the petition is filed.

o The procurement of a final divorce decree without this state by a husband or wife which does not in this state release the other party from the obligations of the marriage.

o Insanity for a period of five (5) years. No divorce shall be granted because of insanity until after a thorough examination of such insane person by three physicians, one of which physicians shall be a superintendent of the hospital or sanitarium for the insane, in which the insane defendant is confined, and the other two physicians to be appointed by the court before whom the action is pending, any two of such physicians shall agree that such insane person, at the time the petition in the divorce action is filed, has a poor prognosis for recovery; provided, further, however, that no divorce shall be granted on this ground to any person whose husband or wife is an inmate of a state institution in any other than the state of Oklahoma, unless the person applying for such divorce shall have been a resident of the State of Oklahoma for at least five (5) years prior to the commencement of an action; and provided further, that a decree granted on this ground shall not relieve the successful party from contributing to the support and maintenance of the defendant.

It will interest you to know that the risk of suicide is greater for people going through divorce. You become more vulnerable to psychiatric problems such as depression and anxiety. Your relationships with your spouse, friends and family developed over the years during your marriage will be adversely affected. It is wise you think properly of the consequences before getting a divorce in Oklahoma. "I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel. (Malachi 2: 16).