CHAPTER 48. DOMESTIC RELATIONS.

ARTICLE 2. DIVORCE, ANNULMENT AND SEPARATE MAINTENANCE.

§48-2-1. Definitions.

For the purposes of this chapter and chapter forty-eight-a of this code, the words and phrases defined in the following subdivisions of this section, and any variation of those words and phrases required by the context, have the meanings ascribed to them in this section. These definitions are applicable unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context.

(a) (1) "Alimony" means the allowance which a person pays to or in behalf of the support of his or her spouse or divorced spouse while they are separated or after they are divorced. The payment of alimony may be required by court order or by the terms of a separation agreement. Alimony may be paid in a lump sum or paid in installments as periodic alimony. Alimony includes temporary alimony as that term is used in section thirteen of this article, as well as alimony as that term is used in section fifteen of this article and elsewhere throughout this article.

(2) "Alimony in gross" means alimony payable either in a lump sum, or in periodic payments of a definite amount over a specific period of time. An alimony award is "alimony in gross" only if the award grants alimony in such terms that a determination can be made of the total amount to be paid as well as the time such payments will cease.

(b) (3) "Antenuptial agreement" or "prenuptial agreement" means an agreement between a man and woman before marriage, but in contemplation and generally in consideration of marriage, whereby the property rights and interests of the prospective husband and wife, or both of them, are determined, or where property is secured to either or both of them, to their separate estate, or to their children or other persons. An antenuptial agreement may include provisions which define the respective property rights of the parties during the marriage, or in the event of the death of either or both of the parties, and may provide for the disposition of marital property upon an annulment of the marriage or a divorce or separation of the parties. A prenuptial agreement is void if at the time it is made either of the parties is a minor.

(4) "Caretaking functions" means tasks that involve interaction with the child or care of the child, including the direction of interaction and care by others. Caretaking functions include the following:
(A) Feeding, bedtime and wake-up routines, care of the child when sick or hurt, bathing, grooming, personal hygiene, dressing, recreation and play, physical safety, transportation, and other functions that meet the daily physical needs of the child;
(B) Direction of the child's various developmental needs, including the acquisition of motor and language skills, toilet training, self-confidence, and maturation;
(C) Discipline, instruction in manners, assignment and supervision of chores, and other tasks that attend to the child's needs for behavioral control and self-restraint;
(D) Arrangements for the child's education, including remedial or special services appropriate to the child's needs and interests, communication with teachers and counselors, and supervision of homework;
(E) The development and maintenance of appropriate interpersonal relationships with peers, siblings, and adults;
(F) Arrangements for health care, including making appointments, communication with health-care providers, medical follow-up, and home health care;
(G) Moral guidance; and
(H) Arrangement of alternative care by a family member, baby-sitter, or other child-care provider or facility, including investigation of alternatives, communication with providers, and supervision.

(5) "Custodial responsibility" refers to physical custodianship and supervision of a child. It usually includes, but does not necessarily require, the exercise of residential or overnight responsibility.

(6) "Decision-making responsibility" refers to authority for making significant life decisions on behalf of a child, including, but not limited to, the child's education, spiritual guidance, and health care.

(c) (7) "Earnings" means compensation paid or payable for personal services, whether denominated as wages, salary, commission, bonus, or otherwise, and includes periodic payments pursuant to a pension or retirement program. "Disposable earnings" means that part of the earnings of any individual remaining after the deduction from those earnings of any amounts required by law to be withheld.

(8) "Family law master" means a commissioner of the circuit court appointed or elected and authorized to hear certain domestic relations actions under section ten, article two-a, chapter fifty-one of this code.

(d) (9) "Income" includes, but is not limited to, the following:
(1) (A) Commissions, earnings, salaries, wages, and other income due or to be due in the future to an individual from his employer and successor employers;
(2) (B) Any payment due or to be due in the future to an individual from a profit-sharing plan, a pension plan, an insurance contract, an annuity, social security, unemployment compensation, supplemental employment benefits, workers' compensation benefits, state lottery winnings and prizes, and overtime pay;
(3) (C) Any amount of money which is owing to an individual as a debt from an individual, partnership, association, public or private corporation, the United States or any federal agency, this state or any political subdivision of this state, any other state or a political subdivision of another state, or any other legal entity which is indebted to the obligor.

(10) "Legal parent" means an individual defined as a parent, by law, on the basis of biological relationship, presumed biological relationship, legal adoption, or other recognized grounds.

(e) (11) "Marital property" means:
(1) (A) All property and earnings acquired by either spouse during a marriage, including every valuable right and interest, corporeal or incorporeal, tangible or intangible, real or personal, regardless of the form of ownership, whether legal or beneficial, whether individually held, held in trust by a third party, or whether held by the parties to the marriage in some form of co-ownership such as joint tenancy or tenancy in common, joint tenancy with the right of survivorship, or any other form of shared ownership recognized in other jurisdictions without this state, except that marital property shall not include separate property as defined in subsection (f) subdivision (16) of this section; and
(2) (B) The amount of any increase in value in the separate property of either of the parties to a marriage, which increase results from (A) (i) an expenditure of funds which are marital property, including an expenditure of such funds which reduces indebtedness against separate property, extinguishes liens, or otherwise increases the net value of separate property, or (B) (ii) work performed by either or both of the parties during the marriage. The definitions of "marital property" contained in this subsection and "separate property" contained in subsection (f) this section shall have no application outside of the provisions of this article, and the common law as to the ownership of the respective property and earnings of a husband and wife, as altered by the provisions of article three of this chapter and other provisions of this code, are not abrogated by implication or otherwise, except as expressly provided for by the provisions of this article as such provisions are applied in actions brought under this article or for the enforcement of rights under this article.

(12) "Mediation" means a method of alternative dispute resolution in which a neutral third person helps resolve a dispute. Mediation is an informal, non-adversarial process whereby the neutral third person, the mediator, assists parties to a dispute to resolve, by agreement, some or all of the differences between them. The mediator has no authority to render a judgment on any issue of the dispute.

(13) "Mediator" means a neutral third person who interposes between two contending parties, with their consent, for the purpose of assisting them in settling their differences.

(14) "Parent" means a legal parent as defined in subdivision (10) of this section, unless otherwise specified.

(15) "Parenting functions" means tasks that serve the needs of the child or the child's residential family. Parenting functions include caretaking functions, as defined in subdivision (4) of this section. Parenting functions also include functions that are not caretaking functions, including:
(A) Provision of economic support;
(B) Participation in decision-making regarding the child's welfare;
(C) Maintenance or improvement of the family residence, home or furniture repair, home-improvement projects, yard work, and house cleaning;
(D) Financial planning and organization, car repair and maintenance, food and clothing purchasing, cleaning and maintenance of clothing, and other tasks supporting the consumption and savings needs of the family; and
(E) Other functions usually performed by a parent or guardian that are important to the child's welfare and development.

(16) "Parenting plan" means a temporary parenting plan as defined in subdivision (22) of this section or a permanent parenting plan as defined in subdivision (17) of this section.

(17) "Permanent parenting plan" means a plan for parenting a child that is incorporated into a final order or subsequent modification order in a domestic relations action. The plan principally establishes, but is not limited to, the allocation of custodial responsibility and significant decisionmaking responsibility and provisions for resolution of subsequent disputes between the parents.

(18) "Rehabilitative alimony" means alimony payable for a specific and determinable period of time, designed to cease when the payee is, after the exercise of reasonable efforts, in a position of self-support.

(f) (19) "Separate property" means:
(1) (A) Property acquired by a person before marriage; or
(2) (B) Property acquired by a person during marriage in exchange for separate property which was acquired before the marriage; or
(3) (C) Property acquired by a person during marriage, but excluded from treatment as marital property by a valid agreement of the parties entered into before or during the marriage; or
(4) (D) Property acquired by a party during marriage by gift, bequest, devise, descent or distribution; or
(5) (E) Property acquired by a party during a marriage but after the separation of the parties and before the granting of a divorce, annulment or decree of separate maintenance; or
(6) (F) Any increase in the value of separate property as defined in subdivision (1), (2), (3), (4) or (5) paragraph (A), (B), (C), (D) or (E) of this subsection subdivision which is due to inflation or to a change in market value resulting from conditions outside the control of the parties.

(g) (20) "Separation" or "separation of the parties" means the separation of the parties next preceding the filing of an action under the provisions of this article, which separation continues, without the parties cohabiting or otherwise living together as husband and wife, and without interruption.

(h) (21) "Separation agreement" means a written agreement entered into by a husband and wife whereby they agree to live separate and apart from each other and, in connection therewith, agree to settle their property rights; or to provide for the custody and support of their minor child or children, if any; or to provide for the payment or waiver of alimony by either party to the other; or to otherwise settle and compromise issues arising out of their marital rights and obligations. Insofar as an antenuptial agreement as defined in subsection (b) subdivision (3) of this section affects the property rights of the parties or the disposition of property upon an annulment of the marriage, or a divorce or separation of the parties, such antenuptial agreement shall be regarded as a separation agreement under the provisions of this article.

(22) "Temporary parenting plan" means a plan incorporated into a temporary or interlocutory order that provides for the parenting of a child pending final resolution of a domestic relations action.