Des Moines Iowa Law Blog

Divorce is a difficult subject, and no one can go through it perfectly. Iowans who have gone through a divorce know all too well that it's easy to make mistakes throughout the process.

Here are some common mistakes to avoid if you are going through a divorce:

By Marshall W. Orsini, attorney at Carr & Wright, PLC

Before I went to law school, I used to think that hearsay meant the same thing as rumors. You know when people say something like "don't listen that talk, that's just a bunch of hearsay." But, as I soon learned in school, hearsay is one of the more complicated and confusing (even to attorneys) issues in the world of litigation.

For anyone wanting to see the Iowa Rules on hearsay for themselves (or needing to cure their insomnia) they can find the Rules on hearsay here: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/ACO/CourtRulesChapter/01-31-2017.5.pdf but be warned, this is just scratching the surface. The case law on hearsay is long and varied. Keep in mind though that the purpose of this blog post is to try and explain hearsay for the everyday person, and not the practicing lawyer.

By definition, hearsay is any out of court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. The "statement" can be oral, written, or even non-verbal conduct (in some situations). So, three quick examples of hearsay would be: (oral) a witness testifies that he overheard the defendant talking about the drug deal he just made; (written) a contractor showing various purchase agreements and receipts; (non-verbal conduct) a child therapist testifies to her young client's interactions with a therapy doll. True enough, all three are hearsay, but all three may still be admissible under one of the 30-plus hearsay exceptions that Iowa recognizes (but I'll save that for another post).

"Offered to prove the matter asserted" is not as complicated as it sounds. It refers to the assertion being made in the alleged hearsay statement. So, if you want to show the effect that the statement had on the listener, and that effect is relevant to the case, than it may not be hearsay at all. For instance, if there is a slip and fall at a convenience and a witness overheard two employees talking a few minutes earlier about a coffee spill, that conversation may not be hearsay at all. It can be offered not to prove that there was coffee, but to prove that the employees were on notice that there was coffee.

Determining child support is an unavoidable part of the divorce and custody process in Iowa. For clients, child support can be a concern and a cause of stress. How child support is determined, however, is not a mystery.

At it's simplest, child support is calculated using the parties' income, but it also takes into account other things, such as day care expenses and insurance premiums. The actual amount of your child support is most directly affected by the visitation schedule (for example, a parent with shared physical care will pay a much lower child support amount then if he does not have shared care).

Unlike many other custody issues, child support boils down to math, based on the amount of income each party makes. And that is where the true fight often lies - proving what the party's real income is. It is not always as simple as checking tax records or pay stubs.

The forms you need to file in a child support matter are often overwhelming to go it alone. And if you ignore the paperwork that you have received, you will more than likely be ordered to pay child support based upon the income that the opposing attorney has stated that you earn. If the other party is represented by an attorney, you should consider getting legal advice from a local attorney, such as one of the great family law attorneys at Carr & Wright.