Getting a Divorce in Alaska? Divorce Law Cheat Sheet for the State of Alaska
1. What are the residency requirements for filing for divorce in Alaska?
You or your spouse must be a resident of the state of Alaska at the time that you file for divorce. If you or your spouse is a member of the U.S. military and has been stationed at a base in Alaska for at least 30 days, that counts too.
2. Does Alaska have a waiting period?
Yes, the court will not grant a divorce until at least 30 days after you file a petition.
3. Does the state have grounds for divorce?
It does. In Alaska, a divorce may be granted for any of the following grounds:
- Your spouse has not consummated your marriage
- Your spouse has committed adultery (had an affair)
- Your spouse has been convicted of a felony
- Your spouse has deserted you and been gone for at least a year
- Your spouse has been cruel and inhumane, putting your health or your life at risk
- Has made you suffer situations that make life “burdensome” — or has an incompatible temperament
- Your spouse has become habitually drunk since you were married and has been this way for at least a year
- Your spouse is incurably mentally ill and has been in an institution for at least 18 months
- Your spouse has become addicted to drugs since you were married
Rather than filing for divorce based on one of these grounds, you and your spouse may file together for a divorce, as long as these conditions exist:
- You and your spouse agree that your incompatibility has made your marriage impossible to fix or save.
- You have children, you and your spouse have agreed on custody, visitation and child support, and your agreement seems to be fair and in the best interests of your children.
- You and your spouse have agreed on how to distribute your property (including retirement benefits) and whether spousal support (alimony) will be paid, and the agreement seems to be fair.
- You and your spouse have agreed on how to handle any debt.
4. How does Alaska determine the division of property?
You and your spouse are encouraged to come up with a settlement on your own and present it to the court. If you can’t agree, the court will divide your property for you. It will take into account retirement benefits and joint or separate property acquired during your marriage. If it’s necessary to make things fair, the court also may include property, including retirement benefits, that your or your spouse acquired before marriage.
The court will consider the following factors:
- How long you were married and your lifestyle
- You and your spouse’s ages and health
- You and your spouse’s abilities to earn a living, including your education, training, skills, experience and whether one of you left the job market to care for your child
- You and your spouse’s financial conditions, including health insurance
- You and your spouse’s behavior, including whether one of you handled your common money or assets unreasonably
- Whether your home (or the right to live in it for a period of time) should go to the parent who has primary physical custody of your child
- You and your spouse’s overall circumstances and needs
- When and how you acquired your property
- Whether your property has the potential to produce income
5. Does Alaska require mediation before a divorce is granted?
Alaska does not require mediation as a rule, though the court may order mediation if it seems likely to help you and your spouse reach a better settlement.
6. How does the state determine child custody?
Legal custody and physical custody are two different things. Legal custody outlines how involved each parent is in the major decisions of a child’s life — where a child goes to school, what faith he or she is raised in and other biggies.
Physical custody addresses where a child will live and with whom. Visitation is then negotiated based your physical custody arrangement.
The court awards custody based on the best interest of your child. To determine what that is, the court considers:
- Your child’s physical, emotional, mental, religious and social needs
- You and your spouse’s abilities to meet those needs
- Your child’s preference in the matter, if the court decides he or she is old enough to determine a preference
- The love and affection between your child and you or your spouse how long your child has lived in a stable environment and whether it’s best to maintain that continuity
- You and your spouse’s willingness and ability to foster a close relationship between your child and the other parent (as long as that parent does not pose a risk of sexual abuse or violence)
- Any evidence of domestic abuse, child abuse or child neglect
- Any evidence of substance abuse by you, your spouse or anyone in you or your spouse’s household that could affect your child
- Any other factors that the court deems relevant
The court may appoint an attorney or the office of public advocacy to represent your child in deciding custody, support and visitation.
7. How does the state calculate child support?
The court has complex rules based on the type of physical custody that has been determined to be in your child’s best interest.
One type of custody is primary physical custody. This means the children live primarily with one parent, living with the other less than 30 percent of the year. If one of you is awarded primary physical custody, the child support amount is determined by taking the other parent’s adjusted annual income and multiplying it by a figure based on how many children you have.
Adjusted annual income is income from all sources, minus:
- Mandatory deductions (taxes, union dues or mandatory contributions to a retirement plan)
- Voluntary contributions to a tax-free or tax-deferred retirement or pension plan (mandatory and voluntary deductions combined cannot be more than 7.5 percent of the parent’s gross wages)
- Child support and alimony payments from prior relationships (those required by another court and actually paid)
- Child support for children from prior relationships living with the parent
- Work-related child-care expenses for your children
That annual adjusted income amount is then multiplied by the figures below:
- 20 percent for one child
- 27 percent for two children
- 33 percent for three children
- an extra 3 percent for each additional child
The court may allow the parent who is paying support to reduce payments by as much as 75 percent when he or she has visitation more than 27 consecutive days.
The court may calculate child support based on what a parent could be earning if he or she is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed. (This does not apply to a parent who is physically or mentally incapacitated or who is caring for a child younger than 2 for whom both parents are responsible). Potential income is based on the parent’s work history, qualifications and job opportunities. The court also may figure any potential income for non-income or low-income assets.
A parent has shared physical custody if the children live with that parent for at least 30, but no more than 70, percent of the year, regardless of the status of legal custody.
If you and your spouse have shared physical custody, you first calculate the amount each of you would pay the other if the other parent had primary physical custody.
Then you multiply the amount each parent would pay by the percentage of time the other parent will have physical custody of the children. (Still, if the court decides that the percentage of time with each parent doesn’t equal the amount that parent would have to spend on the child, the court can change that percentage.)
The parent with the larger figure in these calculations is the parent who will pay, and the annual amount he or she will pay is equal to the difference between the two figures, multiplied by 1.5. (But if this final figure is higher than the amount of support that would be paid in a primary physical custody situation, that primary physical custody amount is used instead.)
The child support award is then paid in 12 equal monthly installments, except:
if shared custody is based on the paying parent having physical custody for 30 consecutive days or more, the total annual amount may be paid in equal installments over those months in which the paying parent does not have physical custody
if the paying parent’s income is seasonal, the court may order unequal monthly support payments
Parents have divided custody if one parent has primary physical custody of one or more of your children and the other parent has primary custody of one or more of your other children, and the parents do not share physical custody of any of the children.
Child support in cases of divided custody is calculated first by determining what each parent would owe the other for the children who are in that parent’s primary physical custody. Second, because divided custody is an unusual circumstance, the court must consider whether this support amount should be varied.
Parents have hybrid custody if at least one parent has primary physical custody of one or more of your children, and the parents have shared physical custody of at least one child.
Child support in cases of hybrid custody is calculated by first determining support for children in the primary physical custody of each parent, and then determining support for children in the shared physical custody of the parents. In these calculations, the percentages are adjusted based on the number of children in each type of custody. These results are then combined to determine the final support amount. Again, because hybrid custody is an unusual circumstance, the court will consider whether this support amount should be varied.
The court may vary your child support for good cause if there is clear proof that the set amount would be unfair.
If a parent has an adjusted annual income of more than $100,000, the court may make an additional award only if it seems fair based on the children’s needs, standard of living and the extent to which that standard reflects the supporting parent’s ability to pay.
The minimum child support amount that may be ordered is $50 per month (with a few exceptions).
In addition to ordering a parent to pay child support, the court may order one or more grandparents to pay child support in an amount determined by the court. This is the case if both parents are minors.
If the non-custodial parent’s income is seasonal, the court may order that the annual support amount be paid in unequal monthly payments, with higher payments during the months the parent expects to receive higher income and lower payments in other months. The court will only order this when it finds that the custodial parent should be the one who has to budget, and the custodial parent agrees.
Health care coverage for your children is a part of the court’s considerations — the cost is generally split. The same applies to copays or other health care expenses not covered by insurance.
8. How does the state determine and calculate alimony?
Alimony, also known as spousal support, is not a given in divorce cases. If you or your spouse requests it, the court will consider:
- How long you were married and your lifestyle
- You and your spouse’s ages and health
- You and your spouse’s earning power, including your education, training, skills, experience, how long you were out of the job market and any responsibilities you had
- For your children while you were married
- You and your spouse’s financial conditions, including health insurance
- You and your spouse’s conduct; in particular, whether one of you handled your common money or assets unreasonably
- How your property has been divided
- Any other factors the court deems relevant
9. Is there a waiting period before remarriage in Alaska?
No, you are free to remarry after the court delivers the final judgment ending your marriage.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
The statutes can be found online here.
The state offers divorce forms online here.
For extensive information about Alaska’s complex child support regulations here.
