Charts 2020: Family Law in the Fifty States, D.C., and Puerto Rico, Part 1
| Pages | 341-392 |
342 Family Law Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 4, 2021
Editors’ Introduction to Charts 2020, Part 1
Charts 2020: Family Law in the Fifty States, D.C., and Puerto Rico, Part 1 provides information about family law statutes in these jurisdictions during the year
2020. Family Law Quarterly (FLQ) has long featured such charts, which were created and edited by Professor Linda Elrod, formerly FLQ Editor in Chief and now FLQ
Editor Emeritus; former FLQ Editor in Chief Kendra Huard Fershee; student editors from Washburn University School of Law and West Virginia University School of
Law; and other contributors, establishing a wonderful resource for practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and scholars. New York Law School (NYLS) became the
academic home for the FLQ beginning in the 2020–21 academic year, and this is the rst year that NYLS has completed work on the charts. Congratulations to all NYLS
2020–21 student Editors for their work on the 2020 charts and to all NYLS Editorial Board members for their leadership and support of this project. Individual student
contributors for 2020 are recognized with each chart.
As family law is an everchanging eld, we have updated some of the charts and we have also developed several new ones. In prior years, the FLQ “Year in Review”
featured charts on Alimony/Spousal Support Factors, Custody Criteria, Child Support Guidelines, Grounds for Divorce and Residency Requirements, Property Division,
and Third-Party Visitation. Going forward, the Year in Review will feature eight charts. Four of these are included in this issue; the remaining charts will be published
in a future issue, and all eight charts will be published together in 2022.
The topics are as follows:
• Current Issue (Vol. 54, Issue No. 4)
Chart 1: Divorce and Alimony/Maintenance
Chart 2: Child Custody
Chart 3: “Nonparent” Custody and Visitation
Chart 4: Child Representation in Child Welfare Proceedings
• Future Issues
Chart 5: Divorce and Property Division
Chart 6: Child Support
Chart 7: Parentage
Chart 8: Domestic Violence
In all eight charts, the information will highlight the considerable variation among the states and/or recent state legislative reforms. For example, the Divorce and
Alimony/Maintenance Chart and the Divorce and Property Division Chart will track consideration of domestic violence or other forms of “noneconomic fault” as a
factor when determining alimony or property division. The Child Custody Chart and the “Nonparent” Custody and Visitation Chart will capture some changes to custody
and visitation laws inuenced by the Uniform Parentage Act (2017), the Uniform Nonparent Custody and Visitation Act (2018), or other initiatives. In future years,
information will be included about state legislative changes that impact the information provided for each state in the Chart. To underscore some of these issues and
provide additional details, we have added a “Notes” column to the Charts. The Notes column includes some statutory text excerpts, as well as some information about
recent state legislation.
Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 4, 2021. © 2021 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may
not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
Charts 2020 343
We have created a “key” for each chart to dene the terms used in each column; each key also provides a sense of what is captured in its corresponding chart and
what is not captured. The keys also reference several secondary sources consulted by the Editors to supplement their own review of the statutory texts. Thank you to FLQ
Managing Editor Lisa V. Comforty for her guidance in shaping the nal keys and revised charts.
It is our hope that we see many iterations of these charts in coming years as a result of different policy and advocacy efforts to provide equity for all individuals,
children, and families. We welcome your feedback on the charts, and we thank you for your readership.
Sincerely,
Shelby R. Arenson
Executive Law-in-Fifty Editor
Family Law Quarterly
J.D. 2021
New York Law School
Lisa F. Grumet
Faculty Editor/Editor in Chief, Family Law Quarterly
Director, Diane Abbey Law Institute for Children and Families
Visiting Associate Professor of Law
New York Law School
lisa.grumet@nyls.edu
Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 4, 2021. © 2021 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may
not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
344 Family Law Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 4, 2021
Key to Chart 1: Divorce and Alimony/Maintenance Statutes in 2020
“Chart 1: Divorce and Alimony/Maintenance Statutes in 2020” combines components of FLQ’s latest charts on related topics, “Chart 4: Grounds for Divorce and
Residence Requirements,” 53 Fam. L.Q. 371 (2020), and “Chart 1: Alimony/Spousal Support Factors,” id. at 354. Denitions of the terms used in this new Chart 1 are
provided below. Please note that the term “alimony” refers to post-divorce payments from one spouse to another that are based on income and distinct from any property
division award. The states differ in their use of the terms; for example, while some states use the term “alimony,” other states use “spousal support” or “maintenance.”
The information in this Chart is based primarily on the text of the state statutes.
1. “No-Fault” Divorce Only identies states that are “true no-fault” divorce states. In these states, the only type of divorce allowed is one due to irreconcilable
differences or irretrievable breakdown of the marriage (or, in some states, incapacity), without “fault” being ascribed to either party. While all states allow for
some form of “no-fault” divorce, some states also permit a party to assert “fault” grounds for divorce such as adultery or cruel and inhuman treatment.
2. Durational Residency Requirements looks to the length of time the state requires a party to be a resident prior to ling divorce papers. States differ in the
length of time required. In some states, the length of time may also vary depending on the parties’ circumstances.
3. Alimony: Noneconomic Fault a Statutory Factor looks to whether the state’s statute specically provides for consideration of noneconomic fault when
determining whether to award alimony or how much. “Noneconomic” fault means fault other than economic conduct such as wasting or dissipation of assets.
Examples of noneconomic fault considered by some states include domestic violence and adultery. Some states broadly authorize consideration of fault; some
states specify adultery or domestic violence; and some state laws do not specically mention fault at all, or they state that alimony should be determined
“without regard to marital misconduct” (similar to the Uniform (Model) Marriage and Divorce Act of 1973). Some details concerning consideration of fault
are included in the Notes column. This Alimony column generally does not capture “catch-all” provisions in alimony statutes that do not specically mention
fault, although some state courts have interpreted these provisions to encompass fault in some circumstances.
4. Alimony: Statutory Guideline Formula for Determining Amount looks to whether the state’s statute includes a mathematical formula for calculating the
amount of alimony or maintenance (similar to child support guidelines). Several states have adopted guideline formulas, but both the formulas and the weight
they are given vary by state. Some states also have guidelines for calculating duration, but these guidelines are not included in the chart.
5. Notes provide further detail about some of the statutes listed in the chart. Asterisks (*, **, or ***) show the connection between the category, the statute, and
the information provided.
Chart 1 and this Key were prepared by the FLQ student editorial staff at New York Law School. Contributors from the 2020–21 academic year include Junior Editors
Fatin Assaf, Andrew Cohen, and Julia Porzio; Senior Editor Alexis Dairman; Executive Law-in-50 Editor Shelby Arenson; and Professor Lisa F. Grumet. All Chart
determinations were based on review of the statutory text and annotations. In addition to the statutes and the 2019 FLQ charts, the editors also reviewed secondary
sources that included Kirsten Gallacher, Fault-Based Alimony in No-Fault Divorce, 22 J. Contemp. leGal issUes 79 (2014–15), and J. Thomas Oldham, An Overview
of the Rules in the USA Regarding the Award of Post-Divorce Spousal Support in 2019, 41 hoUs. J. int’l L. 525 (2019).
Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 54, Number 4, 2021. © 2021 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may
not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
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