What is a Legal Separation?
A legal separation allows the husband and wife to live separately and formalize the arrangement by a court order or a written agreement. The order or agreement will specify what support, if any, one spouse will pay the other. If the husband and wife have minor children, the agreement or court order will set out arrangements regarding custody or visitation. A legal separation is not the same as a divorce. A separation recognizes the possibility that the couple might reunite. In any case, its terms can be modified by the parties or the court when the couple divorces. Most important, people who are legally separated may not remarry. They must wait until a divorce is final before marrying again. When a husband and wife legally separate, they no longer accumulate community or marital property. The property acquired after the legal separation will be considered each partner’s separate or nonmarital property.
The term “legal separation” is more colloquial than legal in nature. It can involve a court order declaring that a couple is no longer living together, and that all the issues concerning the marriage have been resolved (child custody, child visitation, child support, spousal support, distribution of property, attorney fees, and personal conduct) with the exception of marital status. Spouses who are separated are not free to marry since neither has been returned to the legal status of an unmarried (single) person.
In Ohio, some people seek a legal separation because they do not meet the six-month residency requirement for filing a divorce action in Ohio. In those cases, the parties may later convert their legal separation action into a divorce action, or obtaining a decree of legal separation may be a preliminary step toward later obtaining a divorce decree. However, other people file an action for a legal separation instead of a divorce action because they object to divorce for personal or religious reasons, or because they want their spouse to remain fully responsible for their financial support, health insurance coverage, etc. How do I file for a legal separation? A complaint requesting a legal separation must be filed in the domestic relations division of the local common pleas court, or if there is no domestic relations division, in the general division of the common pleas court. The parties may enter into a separation agreement that addresses issues such as spousal support, child custody a
