DivorceNet is committed to serving the families of the Gulf states with timely information and news about efforts to revitalize the family law courts and legal system.

As of September 11, 2005, there is almost no substantive information online. We speculate that in the weeks, months and years ahead, people’s lives will be affected in the following areas:

1. New Divorce Cases. Finding the right lawyer for newly divorcing parties is a challenge in ordinary times. The search is more problematic today, although the legal community is quickly relocating and resuming business.

   Other possible difficulties arise in locating a spouse and serving papers. Parties contemplating divorce are faced with additional problems similar to those outlined under “Pending Divorce Cases.”

2. Pending Divorce Cases. If your case was filed, but not yet finalized, records must be assembled and sorted. Lawyers and parties must be located. It is possible some lawyers will not return to their practices. The Louisiana Bar Association has a bulletin board devoted to lawyers searching for their clients, and clients searching for their lawyers. See http://www.lafayettebar.org/forum/. According to news reports, about a third of the lawyers in Louisiana have been displaced. Mississippi is allowing out of state lawyers to practice in Mississippi in response to Katrina. See http://www.mssc.state.ms.us/news/default.asp
3. Old Divorce Cases. These cases raise several key issues, primarily involving records. If records have been lost, destroyed, or damaged, then parties may have problems proving if and when they were divorced. The date of divorce is critical when determining tax filing status, that is, whether the tax payer is eligible as a single filer, or married and hence, eligible to file a joint return or married, filing separately. For remarriage, it is also important to know when a prior marriage is dissolved legally. Marital status is also important when dealing with employment benefits. Consult a family law lawyer if there are any questions about marital status.
4. Child Support and Alimony. If there are orders already issued by the court, there may be delays in paying and receiving child support and alimony. Those delays will be vexing in weeks and months to come, especially if parties are not returning to their homes and have no permanent forwarding addresses. The Louisiana Support Enforcement Services (SES) has not posted any storm-related information as of September 11, 2005, and no staff members were able to provide information. SES is responsible for collecting money withheld from pay for child support and sending funds to custodial parents. If a business is temporarily or permanently closed because of the storm, funds will not be collected. If custodial parents have relocated, delays in receiving funds are inevitable.

Other people will be caught without any orders in place. For instance, if a case was filed shortly before Katrina struck, the court may not have entered any support orders. It remains unclear when and where the courts will conduct hearings. Court personnel estimate that it will be several weeks before any information is available.

In other instances the judge may have conducted a hearing for support, but did not have a chance to write an order. There may be no papers, computer records or other recorded notations enabling the judge to write an order based on hearings conducted before the hurricane.

Alternatively, the judge may have created orders that were sent to the parties’ last known mailing addresses. Again, delays of weeks or months should be anticipated before orders are implemented. If a disgruntled party wishes to challenge the order, that may also be problematic. At the very least, the courts should suspend or extend the normal time limits for appeals or other time sensitive matters. Notice must be posted in a manner most likely to afford parties and lawyers an opportunity to learn of the changes. Conceivably courts will grant special extensions for good cause.

5. Child Custody, Visitation and Moving out of State. The usual rules are inadequate to meet the needs of the current situation. Again, lawmakers must address questions of fundamental fairness and the practical problems of recreating files, enforcing current orders, and making exceptions as fairness dictates.
6. Community Property. The date of the filing of a request for divorce is the date used by the court to end community property. For better or worse, the change in assets after the date of the filing will benefit or harm the individual, not necessarily both spouses. Trying to ascertain the exact date of filing may prove daunting, if records were lost or destroyed. Again, special rules will be needed to smooth out any inequities caused by the storm.

Helpful Links:

Detailed information is hard to find, because policies and procedures have not yet been formulated to deal with the many issues facing families in the weeks and months ahead. The following sites are the best resources for information about news and updates. Check frequently.

1. Child support collections and payments through the Louisiana Office of Support Enforcement Services: http://www.dss.state.la.us/departments/ofs/Support_Enforcement_Services_P.html
   
   Please note that as of September 11, 2005 it is difficult to reach anyone with any information.
2. Louisiana divorce for nonlawyers: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1589801962
3. Louisiana Family Law Guide: A Client's Guide to Divorce, Custody, Child Support, Spousal Support, Community Property, and More (Paperback)
   by Stephen Rue

   The Guide Is available on Amazon at 32 percent off list for $13.57. It is a handy source of information in one volume.

4. For updates on Katrina-related news in Washington, D.C., see Cornell University Law School’s: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/RESOURCES/hottopic.htm
5. Cornell’s Law Library also publishes the following materials on family law: http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/divorce.html
6. For Louisiana family law topics, see: http://www.law.cornell.edu/states/louisiana.html
7. For information about the family court in East Baton Rouge: http://www.familycourt.org/
8. A useful bulletin board sponsored by the Louisiana Bar Association, for lawyers searching for their clients and clients searching for their lawyers. http://www.lafayettebar.org/forum/.
9. Updates and legal resources in Mississippi: http://www.msbar.org/.
10. Updates and legal resources in Houston: http://www.hba.org/.
11. Updates and information about child support in Mississippi: http://www.mdhs.state.ms.us/cse.html.
12. Updates and information about child support in Texas: http://www.oag.state.tx.us/child/index.shtml.