Legal Question in Family Law in Idaho
Divorce appeal/reversal and modification
My divorce was final in Dec 1999, the x remarried 8 days after divorce was final. The divorce was a default divorce. I retained the house (she did sign a quit claim deed)and full custody of child, she was not ordered to pay child support, but her visitation was ordered supervised. Property was divided 2 months after the divorce was final (I had to tell her that I was giving it all to goodwill in order for her to come pick it up), though decree states already divided. (She had walked out and disappeared and only made contact to sign the default divorce papers). Now a review is pending and she is asking for unsupervised visitation, but I countered with asking for child support. Now she is threatening to appeal the original divorce for half the house and some other property. Can she appeal the original divorce and claim half the value of the house, and claim other property? And if so, will this negate the original divorce making her married to 2 people? Is there a time limitation for appeal to an uncontested default divorce? Thanks in advance for your reply.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Divorce appeal/reversal and modification
She can only appeal within 42 days of the date of the divorce
decree. If that was in 1999 as you say she is out of luck.
I assume that she filed a petition for modification of the original
decree. In this case, she has the burden of proving: 1) that a material
change in circumstances of the parties has taken place since the date of
the decree and 2) that it is in the child's best interest for her to have
unsupervised visitation.
She must prove that each of the foregoing factors is true by the greater
weight of the evidence. in other words, if she doesn't persuade the court
that both of the conditions exist by something more than 50%, then she loses.
the original divorce decree regarding the property distribution is not
modifiable unless she can show a fraud by you against the court and this must be
done with one year of the date of the decree.
I charge $120 per hour for the work I do if you want me to represent you in the
modification proceedings.
Re: Divorce appeal/reversal and modification
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