If you and your spouse are facing a contested divorce, the court may appoint a Master to your case.
You can rest assured that the Master assigned to assist in your divorce action has significant experience in helping to resolve family law matters.
About the Master
A Master is an attorney within the court system who has extensive family law experience. The court may appoint a Master to conduct a hearing or hold a pretrial conference pertaining to a contested divorce. The Master will provide each attorney of record with written notice of a scheduled hearing relative to the divorce case. First, the Master will meet with the attorneys and then with the divorcing parties together with their respective lawyers.
Issues on the table
The Master may hold hearings to decide various issues, including:
– Who should receive the assets and debts in the marital estate
– The percentage of assets and debts each party should receive
– Whether divorce should be granted to one party based on fault
– Whether the court should grant alimony
– Settlement of valuation disputes
– Payment of court costs and attorney fees
A look ahead
Following the hearing, the Master usually writes a report with recommendations to present to the judge who presides over the divorce case. Unless someone challenges the Master’s report, the judge will sign a court order based on the information in the report. Some couples have a number of issues on which they cannot agree. The ultimate goal of a Master is to bring the divorce case either to settlement or to trial.