22.000 Divorce and Alimony

22.000 Divorce and Alimony The following new charge is suggested for use in conjunction with the new child support guidelines, effective January 1, 2007. Please see cautionary note below for further information. Warning/Disclosure: The changes to the Domestic/Divorce/Child Support Section 22.000 et al. and the new Section 23.000 et al. have not gone through the same meticulous approval process by the full Pattern Jury Instruction Committee as is usually the case. Every effort has been made to publish proposals online and to afford committee members the opportunity to attend meetings and participate in conference calls. We have sought input from others, especially those who have served on legislative committees and who are working on rules, forms, and training currently. However, there has not been sufficient opportunity for full participation, primarily because of the short time constraint in the interest of drafting a usable document as soon as possible. Secondly, much about these issues has not yet been determined. Nevertheless, we have decided to publish as accurate and useful a product as is feasible at this point, and we advise you to use the following with adequate caution. Charges will, to some extent, be dictated by procedures that may not have yet been finalized. We all recognize that this is, and must be, a work in progress. Judges will need to do their own research, form opinions sometimes with little guidance, and use discretion in applying the laws in this areas. We have tried to identify some of the most notable areas. For divorce cases that do not involve child support, there is little change to this section other than the deletion of child support­related charges. We have created a preliminary charge (before evidence) and a new introduction to the general charge, both of which are better adapted for use in domestic cases. In the introduction to the general charge, we have included cross-references to the civil charge book to facilitate incorporation of other standard charges as appropriate. For divorce cases that do involve child support, start with the charges in Section 22.000 et al. and then incorporate appropriate charges from Section 23.000 et al. A hybrid "trifurcated" procedure will need to be followed (although we are by no means unanimous on this matter): Phase 1 a. Preliminary domestic instructions (with warning that schedules are not evidence, etc.) b. Presentation of all evidence for case c. Charge of court on all issues except child support d. Verdict on alimony and equitable division Phase 2 a. Charge on income decision (No more evidence presented. It may be required or prudent to let the lawyers reargue first.) b. Verdict on income c. Computation of adjustments/child support; make announcement to jury regarding custody and visitation, if not done before (required by statute and necessary to decide some deviations) Phase 3 a. Charge on deviations decision b. Verdict on deviations c. Judgment of court Note: The separate phases are for charge, deliberation, and verdict only and not for presentation of more evidence. For simple cases, it might be possible to combine Phase 1 and Phase 2, but the sequence of decision making by the jury would still hold true.