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Calendars as evidence of activity and expenses in divorce

On behalf of Stange Law Firm, PC posted in Child Custody on Monday, January 6, 2020.

When parents in Missouri think about the kind of records they need to gather to prepare for a divorce, a calendar is probably not even on the list. However, a calendar can provide valuable information for parents who need to reconstruct a schedule and list of expenses associated with their children. Deep into the stressful process of divorce, it can be difficult for parents to accurately answer questions about expenses, and a calendar can help.

One thing the calendar can do is jog a parent’s memory about certain expenses. For example, it can be easy to forget about the many birthday parties a child attends throughout the year and the cost of gifts for those parties. Parents may also forget about the child taking trips out of town for sports events or about trips to the doctor or therapist. A calendar can clarify all of this and can serve as evidence if parents have a dispute about costs, dates or frequency of an event. This information can be helpful in determining child support.

It can also be helpful in establishing a baseline for lifestyle, which is useful calculating spousal support as well. Both of these payments are supposed to help the recipient maintain a lifestyle that is comparable to the one they had during the marriage.

Reaching an agreement on child custody and child support can be difficult because of the emotions involved, but it is possible for parents to do so without having to turn to litigation. Parents may share both legal and physical custody, or they might only share legal custody. Physical custody determines where the child lives. Usually, even a parent who does not share physical custody has joint legal custody since this allow the parent to have a say in the child’s religion, health care and other important matters.

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