Fargo Family Law Blog

Even with sky high divorce rates across the country, grandparents' rights are often overlooked and frequently are not taken into consideration within custody negotiations. The same lack of attention may be prevalent in a situation where one parent dies, and the remaining parent refuses contact between the child and his or her grandparents. While the state of North Dakota has laws in place to prevent grandparents from being alienated from grandchildren, the decision is not made on grandparents' wishes alone. There are other factors a court must take into consideration when determining whether grandparent visitation is appropriate.

For example, the court will take a close look at the past personal contact between the grandparents and the child to determine whether it is positive relationship. The same will be considered regarding the relationship between the child's parents and the grandparents. North Dakota family courts must presume that a child's parent is considering the child's best interests when making visitation allowances or disallowances. If grandparents disagree with that decision, then the burden of proof falls on them to show that visitation should be allowed and would be beneficial to the child.

If you have started researching for your upcoming divorce, you might have come across the phrase "equitable distribution." This term refers to the legal requirements involved for dividing property at the end of a marriage under North Dakota law.

Essentially, equitable in this context means "fair." Rather than simply listing all the marital property and dividing it 50/50, when it comes to property division North Dakota courts try to determine what is fair.

Just like every parent throughout the country, North Dakota parents often go through their daily lives on autopilot. During this time, they may find themselves at odds when it comes to disciplining the children, but they never quite get the time to sit down and discuss it in order to get on the same page.

When parents divorce, they gain a unique opportunity to talk about this important issue. If the negotiations go well, they could come to a consensus regarding how to discipline the children, which could help in their post-divorce co-parenting. The more consistent parents are across both households, the better off everyone will be. The children will know what to expect and they won't see either parent as "the bad guy," which could cause unnecessary confrontations.

The road to divorce in North Dakota is never smooth or free from unexpected bumps. However, even the bumpiest road can produce a divorce decree that fairly resolves all issues between the parties, including spousal maintenance, property division and, if necessary child support and custody. Some divorces, however, end badly, with one or both ex-spouses feeling that the court did not understand their arguments or hear their evidence. What can be done?

The first option is appealing the judgment to the North Dakota Supreme Court. This option is generally the most expensive. Another factor to consider is the fact that oftentimes appeals from divorce judgments fail. The Supreme Court is very unlikely to find that the there was an error in the judge's decision that warrants a reversal.