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Posts on separation and divorce
Posts by attorney Mieke Karcher on the questions that come up most often in the first consultation.
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39 posts
- First steps · About 6 minutesStill undecided: what a first consultation does and does not startA first consultation starts no year of separation and no application. What stays reversible, and the one point where waiting costs you money.
- Marital agreement · About 6 minutesCan a marital agreement be made without a notary?Without notarization in the simultaneous presence of both spouses, a marital agreement is void. Here is what still works without a notary.
- Marital agreement · About 6 minutesChanging or canceling a marital agreementA marital agreement can be changed or canceled at any time during the marriage, but only in the same notarial form and only by mutual consent.
- Marital agreement · About 7 minutesChoice of law in a marital agreement for binational couplesProperty regime, divorce and maintenance each follow their own conflict rules. A marital agreement can settle all three, each within its own limits.
- Marital agreement · About 6 minutesSettling post-marital maintenance in a marital agreementPost-marital maintenance can be capped, time-limited or excluded, and how far that holds depends on the protected core and on shared children.
- Marital agreement · About 7 minutesWhat goes into a marital agreement?A marital agreement is made of six building blocks, from the preamble to the closing provisions. And there are three points that do not belong in it.
- Marital agreement · About 7 minutesWhen is a marital agreement invalid?German courts review marital agreements on two levels, and an agreement only fails where objective one-sidedness meets subjective inferiority.
- How a divorce proceeds · About 4 minutesThe divorce hearing: how it runs in courtWhat awaits you at the divorce hearing before the family court: appearing in person, the hearing itself and the road to a final decision.
- How a divorce proceeds · About 6 minutesDoes my divorce lawyer have to be in my city?Your divorce lawyer does not have to be in your city: any lawyer can represent you at every German family court, and your address decides the court.
- How a divorce proceeds · About 6 minutesHow long does a divorce take?Four to twelve months on average. The three factors that set the pace, and what you can influence.
- Assets and accrued gains · About 2 minutesInherited family home: why only €30,000 of €500,000 countA worked example of the inherited house in the equalization: not half the house counts, only the growth in value during the marriage after indexation.
- Separation and maintenance · About 4 minutesSeparation before the divorce: what applies at onceWith the separation, rules of its own take effect immediately. What living apart means for maintenance, the home and tax, and what counts now.
- First steps · About 4 minutesShared care in Frankfurt: when it fitsIn the shared care model the child lives about half the time with each parent. When that serves the child’s welfare, and what it means for maintenance.
- International family law · About 6 minutesTwo possible countries: where should we file for divorce?With an international element, several states often have equal jurisdiction. Whoever files first fixes the court, and the court fixes the law.
- How a divorce proceeds · About 4 minutesYear of separation: when can you file for divorce?Only after the year of separation does the law presume the marriage has failed. When the year begins, when to file and which exceptions exist.
- International family law · About 6 minutesCan we divorce in Germany if we married abroad?A marriage concluded abroad can be dissolved in Germany. What is decisive is the spouses’ habitual residence; the place of the wedding does not count.
- International family law · About 5 minutesTwo nationalities: under which law will we be divorced?Where there are several passports, the closest connection counts; a German passport usually takes precedence. A shared second nationality opens up room.
- International family law · About 6 minutesForeign assets and accrued gains: which property law appliesIn cross-border cases, the EU Matrimonial Property Regulation decides which property law applies; without a choice of law, the first shared home counts.
- International family law · About 6 minutesUnder which law are we divorced: German or foreign?The competent court and the applicable law are two different things. Rome III determines the divorce law, with a ladder of connecting factors.
- Separation and maintenance · About 5 minutesChild support: how to read the Düsseldorf tableIncome group, age band, child benefit, protected minimum: how the figure in the Düsseldorf table becomes the amount you actually transfer.
- Assets and accrued gains · About 5 minutesDebts in the divorce: who is liable for the joint loan?Marriage does not turn someone else’s debts into your own. Who nevertheless stands in for the joint loan, and why the bank does not have to play along.
- Assets and accrued gains · About 5 minutesInheritance law during separation: the riskiest periodUntil the divorce is final, a separated spouse inherits as usual. When that right ends and which powers of attorney to revoke right away.
- Uncontested divorce · About 5 minutesMediation in separation and divorce: when it worksMediation replaces neither lawyer nor court, but it can settle what follows a separation more cheaply and durably. How it works, and when it doesn’t.
- Pension rights adjustment · About 5 minutesThe V10 pension adjustment questionnaire: what mattersForm V10 is the one place in divorce proceedings where you have a say in the pace. Which entitlements belong in it, and which are regularly forgotten.
- Separation and maintenance · About 5 minutesPost-marital maintenance: when it endsAfter the divorce, self-responsibility applies. When maintenance is nevertheless owed, and why any time limit turns on the marriage-related disadvantage.
- Separation and maintenance · About 4 minutesSeparation maintenance: who gets how much, and from when?Separation maintenance runs from the separation until the divorce is final. How the amount is formed and why the moment of demanding it decides months.
- Separation and maintenance · About 4 minutesTax after separation: tax class, assessment, RealsplittingThe year of separation has a tax cut-off date that many people miss. When joint assessment is still possible, and how the Realsplitting scheme works.
- Pension rights adjustment · About 5 minutesWhen the pension rights adjustment falls awayA short marriage, minor entitlements, gross inequity or an agreement: the four routes by which the pension rights adjustment shrinks or falls away.
- How a divorce proceeds · About 4 minutesYour name after the divorce: keep it, drop it, combine itYou keep your married name after the divorce automatically, and you can drop it at any time with no deadline. What applies since the 2025 reform.
- Marital agreement · About 3 minutesWhat does a marital agreement cost?Notary fees for a marital agreement are set by statute (GNotKG) and follow the assets it covers; they are not open to negotiation.
- Assets and accrued gains · About 3 minutesDisclosure of your spouse’s assets: what you are entitled toWhen accrued gains are divided, you are entitled to disclosure of your spouse’s assets, with documents. How § 1379 BGB uncovers vanished assets.
- Marital agreement · About 4 minutesExcluding or changing accrued gains in a marital agreementA marital agreement can exclude or adjust the equalization of accrued gains: separation of property, a modified regime, and the limits of judicial review.
- Divorce for business owners · About 4 minutesPaying the equalization without breaking up the businessThe equalization of accrued gains is due as a lump sum, but the value sits in the business. Deferral under § 1382 BGB and instalments protect liquidity.
- Assets and accrued gains · About 3 minutesProperty in the equalization: the value, not the land registerA property enters the equalization at market value minus debts secured on it; half the house does not change owners. The same goes for inherited property.
- Divorce for business owners · About 4 minutesHow is a business valued in the equalization of gains?A business enters the equalization of accrued gains at its true value: valued on two cut-off dates, less a notional owner’s salary.
- Marital home, property and household goods · About 4 minutesProperty on separation: use, housing advantage, ownershipWho owns the shared property, who keeps paying the loan, and what the routes are: from a sale or a buyout to a partition auction.
- First steps · About 3 minutesTraveling with children: which travel documents do I need?When you need the other parent’s consent for a trip with your child, what belongs in a travel authorization and which identity papers are necessary.
- Uncontested divorce · About 5 minutesDivorce without a lawyer: or is one enough for both?A divorce without a lawyer does not exist in Germany: representation before the court is mandatory. When a single lawyer is enough and what you save.
- Online divorce · About 4 minutesOnline divorce or in person?An online divorce is not a separate procedure, only a digital way of handling it. What runs online, and why the court hearing remains.
Not legal advice
These posts describe the rule. Your case turns on circumstances that appear in no text: dates, documents, figures and what the other side does. We can only give you an assessment once we know them.
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