Important Legal Considerations When Filing for Divorce While Pregnant

Why a divorce may take longer and be more complicated if you file while pregnant.

• When you can file for a divorce during pregnancy; and when you can’t.

• Determining custody, parenting time and child support is affected when you are pregnant.

• What can’t be determined by the court until after the child is born.

• Whether paternity of the child can be established while you are pregnant.

• What happens if the spouses cannot agree on paternity.

• Weighing the timeline of a pregnancy with the timeline of a divorce.

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this communication is intended to provide legal advice nor does it constitute a client-attorney relationship, therefore you should not interpret the contents as such.

Sarah Bain
Definitely. So while the court can't necessarily order child support before the child is born, the court can still address financial issues between the parties during the divorce. That can include temporary spousal support, orders regarding payment of medical insurance, payment of ongoing medical expenses related to the pregnancy, and responsibility for other household bills. So there are definitely ways to provide financial stability during the pregnancy while the divorce is pending.

Steve Altishin
That makes sense because pregnancies are expensive. And especially if there are complications, I mean, those medical costs can become pretty substantial.

Sarah Bain
Absolutely. And that's why communication and planning are so important in these cases. Even when parties are separating, there still has to be some level of cooperation because you're preparing for the birth of a child. Courts generally want to encourage stability and consistency for both the parents and the child once the child is born.

Steve Altishin
You mentioned timelines earlier, and I think that's really important because divorce timelines and pregnancy timelines don't always match up neatly. How does someone sort of weigh those timelines together?

Sarah Bain
A lot of it depends on the goals of the parties. Some people feel emotionally ready to move forward immediately and want to file right away, even if the divorce process may pause while waiting for the child to be born. Other people may decide that it makes more sense to wait until after the birth so all custody, parenting time, and support issues can be resolved together in one judgment.

Sarah Bain
There are practical considerations too. For example, if the parties are still sharing health insurance coverage through one spouse’s employer, they may want to consider how a divorce could affect access to prenatal care and medical coverage for the birth. There are also emotional considerations. Pregnancy is already a physically and emotionally demanding time, and divorce adds another layer of stress and uncertainty.

Steve Altishin
Yeah, it sounds like this is one of those situations where there really isn't a one-size-fits-all answer.

Sarah Bain
Exactly. Every family situation is unique. Some couples are able to cooperate very well even during a divorce, and others are dealing with high conflict situations where communication is extremely difficult. That's why having guidance from an attorney can really help people understand their options and make informed decisions about timing and next steps.

Steve Altishin
And I imagine too, that because emotions are already heightened during pregnancy, it can make conflict during divorce even more intense.

Sarah Bain
Definitely. There’s already a lot happening emotionally and physically during pregnancy, and adding legal proceedings on top of that can be overwhelming. I think one of the most important things is making sure people have support systems in place — whether that’s legal support, family support, counseling, or medical providers — because these situations can become very emotionally draining.

Steve Altishin
Well, Sarah, thank you so much for sitting down and talking with us about this really important and honestly pretty complicated topic. I think it’s something a lot of people may not realize can create so many legal questions.

Sarah Bain
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me, Steve.

Steve Altishin
You bet. And thank you everyone for joining us today. If anyone has further questions, feel free to contact our firm, and we can help get you connected with someone who can help. Until next time, stay safe, stay happy, and be well.

Outro:
This has been Modern Family Matters, a legal podcast focusing on providing real answers and direction for individuals and families. Our podcast is sponsored by Pacific Cascade Legal, serving families in Oregon and Washington. If you are in need of legal counsel or have additional questions about a family law matter important to you, please visit our websites at pacificcascadelegal.com or pacificcascadefamilylaw.com. You can also call our headquarters at (503) 227-0200 to schedule a case evaluation with one of our seasoned attorneys. Modern Family Matters, advocating for your better tomorrow and offering legal solutions important to the modern family.

Sarah Bain
Yes, I haven't. I haven't seen that exact case. But parties, parties agree to things or ask the court to different things, ask the court for different things all the time. And in a case where someone was pregnant, I would definitely ask the court for medical costs as part of the part of the divorce part of the divorce because, you know, as you might imagine, it can be very expensive to have a baby, especially if there's complications. My kids, it was a $3,000. And that we know, we were covered by MediCal, but in a lot of cases, we in most cases, actually where there's children involved. We have people agree in their judgment that, you know, mom and dad will pay 50% of the medical costs any out of pocket medical costs, that there may be, and I could in court typically order that they routinely order each parent to pay half of the uninsured medical costs. Or if you have a child with a disability, sometimes the court orders a an increased amount in child support to cover, you know, a child's regular medical needs. And if that's an issue, I mean, you would definitely want to talk to an attorney about that issue, because there's quite a lot going on there. But in general, I would see I definitely could see a court ordering half of the costs of the of the birth for both parties to pay.

Steve Altishin
Looking kind of on the other side, can the spouse ask the court to either delay it any decisions or the thing that comes to my mind is in a in a child custody or child parenting time case. You know, they set out the stuff and you know what One of the clauses is you can't move away without permission to the court, can the spouse try to protect themselves by getting some sort of an order during the divorce, that you can't move away, because you're pregnant. And it's sort of, you know, ultimately would be the same kind of an issue, you would think.

Sarah Bain
Interesting. We do status quo is for children who are in already with us on the earth. But the unborn child is a very interesting issue, I think a judge would definitely consider that and think and think about whether or not the judge would allow this person to move away while pregnant, because basically, you are separating yourself from the, from the child and not letting the parent the other parent have parenting time, which is not legal in Oregon. Under General Well, it's complicated, as you know, but in most cases, the court will order parenting time for both parents.

Steve Altishin
Let's say that there's more there's already two kids and a pregnancy. Does can the court deal with those kids? Or is the court sort of required to wait and do the whole package?

Sarah Bain
No. So that's a very interesting question. And I could I see this question come up. I mean, I would think that, you know, in quite a lot of places where someone's pregnant, and they're getting a divorce, that they've been in this marriage for a long time with someone and may have older children, for sure. And while you can get your divorce finalized, while you're pregnant, you wouldn't be able to get the custody parenting time and child support issues, adjusted for the for the new child, but you definitely could have those issues adjudicated for the older children. What would happen this is that you would get a judgment, you would enter into a parenting plan with your spouse, and you would start to go along, and then you would file for a modification once the once the child was born. And basically, the Department of Justice would have to adjust the child support amount. And you would have to come up with a parenting plan that would be appropriate for a newborn, as well as a parenting plan that is appropriate for the older children. So your your parenting plan for the newborn may look much different than your parenting plan for the older children. It may be that for the older children, mom has one week dad has one week, but then for the newborn, baby, the newborn still nursing, you know, maybe dad only sees the newborn for a couple hours every few days, and then builds up to having the same sort of parenting plan with all the children over time.

Steve Altishin
From a financial point of view, and especially, you know, attorney costs and attorney fees, and maybe the cost of negotiating, mediating, and everything kind of put together. pikey Mindy. And I said, Do you know, should I just settle? You? Should we settle all the other issues now? And then when the kid comes, we'll just settle that issue? Or we'll do it now. And then we'll modify it later? What would cost less? And I know, that's a crazy open ended question. But I mean, I imagine costs of doing it twice, maybe more than cost of doing ones are the cost of getting, you know, going all the way to mediation, and then knowing you have triplets and having to say we have to throw all that out and now start again.

Sarah Bain
You know, that's a very interesting question, Steve. And I tell clients all the time, they say, Well, what's my what's my billing going to be at the end of this? Or how much is this going to cost? And and if I go to my mechanic and I say to my mechanic, how much is this going to cost? My mechanic is able to open the hood of the car and look inside and go, Oh, okay, you know, this is wrong, this is wrong. We need a new one of these, and they can give me a pretty accurate estimate. When we're dealing with these more complicated legal issues and complicated families. It's very hard for me to give people a quote on cost because I'm not a mechanic and I can't It's like looking at a car without being able to open the hood and look inside and see what issues we're gonna get into down the line. Because a lot of the times it can seem very contentious and people can be very upset in the beginning of the divorce process, but then come to find out that they are pretty much aligned on what they want in terms of getting divorced. They, they understand how they want to split the property, they have an idea of how they want to co parent they have an idea of you know, who should have custody or whether they want to do joint custody. You know, in those cases, I mean, it really can be very, there can be complicated issues. But for the attorney, we can solve those issues pretty easily, easily, especially when the parties are willing to be reasonable and come to a settlement agreements. And in those cases, I would say, you know, go for it, there's, there's really, I mean, if we're going to come to a reasonable settlement, waiting, not waiting, I don't necessarily see a big change in cost. Where I do see a big change in the cost of a divorce with a pregnancy is if there's some really contentious issues. And in those cases, where we're going to hearings, and we're going to trial, and there may be temporary orders involved. In you know, the parents are not agreeing to custody of the older children, they're not agreeing on the property and division, they may or may not need to sell a house, those issues can be very complicated. I don't think that there's any harm in getting started. Because those issues can usually usually need to be resolved. Some things that we do for our clients is a client says, You know what, this is getting expensive. Can we wait on some of these issues, and in a pregnancy situation is very set up for for waiting, I mean, where we could start the divorce, we could start working on the property issues, we could start getting into settlement negotiations with opposing counsel. And then we could, you know, basically pause and say, Okay, we're going to wait until after the baby's born to resume what we're doing. And I think, I think a court would be, you know, willing to do that. So you don't always know sometimes they won't allow us that over. But, you know, and then there's the personal aspect of it, too. I mean, yes, well, it may cost you less, to wait to do the whole divorce all at once, especially if you're very early in the pregnancy. And nine months comes and goes and you know, you hopefully in that time, have settled some things with your ex you have, you know, maybe moved out, you've maybe worked on talking about a parenting plan, and you have a lot of those issues worked out and the court can decide, because the baby's born, the court can decide custody, parenting time and child support, it may be less expensive. However, you definitely want to think about, do you want to stay in a very unhappy or potentially abusive relationship while you're going through a pregnancy? I think both pregnancy can be a wonderful stressor in your life. But it also it is a stressor, it can be very stressful to be pregnant, especially when you're going through a divorce. And there's a huge amount of uncertainty about your future. So I think really personal temperament goes into play there. Are you needing to make this decision personally and to have the issues resolved to work out the divorce as soon as possible? Or is it not important to you, and it's more important to you to potentially save money and wave?

Steve Altishin
Yeah. We're almost out of time, it always flies too fast. But just final kind of thought in question is, whatever stage they're in, whether they're just realizing it, whether they're eight months pregnant, you as the attorney can handle all those situations. There's no better, you know, oh, you need to wait to this time, or we can't do anything until that time kind of thing. You can handle them from six weeks to eight months to, you know, almost nine months.

Sarah Bain
Definitely, at any stage of a pregnancy. If somebody's considering divorce, we definitely would like to, you know, help you out. And we can set up a consultation here at Pacific Cascade Legal. During our consultations, we go through, you know, different options. And I always think having a lawyer on board is a good thing, especially when you're going through a divorce that may be complicated for a plethora of reasons, but especially a pregnancy is something that I feel that you should speak to a lawyer about if you're considering divorce at all.

Steve Altishin
I love it. Well, thank you so much. This is really, really interesting stuff. And I cannot say more than you know, thank you for sitting down today to talk about, you know, not only can you file for divorce when you're pregnant, but just how pregnancy can affect your entire divorce case, or in some cases, not. So thanks again for for joining us today.

Sarah Bain
You're welcome, Steve, thank you very much.

Steve Altishin
Well, and everyone else, thank you for joining and if anyone has any further questions on today's topic, and we can get you connected with one of our attorneys to talk about your particular situation. So until next time, stay safe, stay happy, be well.

Outro:
This has been Modern Family Matters, a legal podcast focusing on providing real answers and direction for individuals and families. Our podcast is sponsored by Pacific Cascade Legal, serving families in Oregon and Washington. If you are in need of legal counsel or have additional questions about a family law matter important to you, please visit our websites at pacificcascadelegal.com or pacificcascadefamilylaw.com. You can also call our headquarters at (503) 227-0200 to schedule a case evaluation with one of our seasoned attorneys. Modern Family Matters, advocating for your better tomorrow and offering legal solutions important to the modern family.