My name is Margo Grubbs and I am the managing partner of Grubbs &25 Landry PLLC in Northern Kentucky. I have been an attorney for almost 40 years. I was licensed in the state of Kentucky in 1980 and in the state of Ohio in 1992. I have practiced law in the areas of family law, criminal defense, personal injury, medical malpractice, and general practice. I’m known in my area as a trial lawyer because I have tried a number of jury trials and bench trials over the course of 40 years. Prior to being an attorney, I attended the police academy in Kentucky in 1975 and served in law enforcement for approximately five years before being licensed to practice law.
Our firm handles family law matters as at least 50 percent of our practice. Family law consists of divorce, custody, child support, adoption, dependency, neglect and abuse, and juvenile matters. In Kentucky, the family law court is an umbrella court; once a family becomes involved with the family court in the jurisdiction that they reside, that court and that judge will handle their case from beginning to end.
If you were contemplating divorce in Kentucky, you would need to know that Kentucky is a no-fault state. You do not have to allege grounds for the reason that you are getting a divorce. You just have to allege that the marriage is irretrievably broken with no hope of reconciliation and that’s the only standard that the court applies in deciding whether or not they will grant you a decree of dissolution of marriage. We also have a statute for legal separation. In Kentucky, the statute governing legal separation is called divorce from bed and board. That is an old-time statutory provision, stating that people can still retain the status of being married but they are separated from one another physically as well as legally.
In order to meet with an attorney and file for divorce, you need to have a serious understanding of your financial status within the marriage. Most people in a marriage have ongoing monthly financial obligations that result in expenditures of sums of money for things such as mortgage payments and utilities. It’s very important to bring that information to your meeting with your attorney. People going through life sometimes borrow money and that is called a debt. Those debts need to be identified for the attorney. The monthly payments that are required and the balances owed are very important things to bring to your divorce counsel.
In addition to the financial information, the parties going through divorce need to be able to identify what their ownership interest is in their property. The court wants to know if a property that is owned is marital property. In Kentucky, marital property is defined as all property acquired during the course of the marriage, except for items such as inheritances or gifts to a specific spouse. Those items generally are non-marital property. These pieces of information will help an attorney assist you in formulating a plan on how to move forward with a divorce. One of the other items that the court requires in Kentucky is known as a disclosure form. It helps you identify what you need to bring to your first meeting and also sets forth a budget.
For more information on Introduction to Attorney Margo Grubbs, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (859) 341-2500 today.