NBTA Family Trial flashcards
NBTA Family Trial · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Preponderance of the evidence
- The default burden in most family-law cases, meaning the claim is more likely true than not, typically expressed as greater than 50 percent probability.
- Clear and convincing evidence
- A heightened standard requiring highly probable truth, applied to termination of parental rights and some legitimacy or custody rebuttals.
- Best interests of the child
- The governing custody standard weighing stability, caregiver capacity, child adjustment, safety, and, when age-appropriate, the child's stated preference.
- UCCJEA home state
- The state where the child lived with a parent for six consecutive months before filing, which generally has priority for initial custody jurisdiction.
- UIFSA continuing jurisdiction
- The issuing tribunal keeps power to modify its support order unless no party or child remains in the state or the parties consent in writing elsewhere.
- Marital property presumption
- Property acquired during the marriage is presumed marital and divisible, subject to rebuttal by tracing to separate sources.
- Separate property
- Assets owned before marriage, received by gift or inheritance, or the passive appreciation of such assets, generally excluded from division.
- Spousal support factors
- Courts weigh marriage duration, marital standard of living, earning capacity, economic need, caregiving contributions, and the parties' health and ages.
- Child support guidelines
- Formulas using both parents' gross incomes, number of children, parenting-time adjustments, and add-ons like insurance and childcare; deviations need written findings.
- Relocation standard
- A moving parent generally must show a good-faith reason and that the move serves the child's best interests, balanced against the other parent's contact.
- Tender years doctrine
- A historical presumption favoring maternal custody of young children, now largely replaced by gender-neutral best-interests analysis in most jurisdictions.
- Parenting plan
- A court-approved schedule and set of rules covering custody, parenting time, holidays, exchanges, communication, and decision-making authority.
- Legal custody
- Authority to make major decisions about a child's education, health care, and religion, which may be joint or sole.
- Physical custody
- The parent with whom the child primarily resides, determining the residential schedule and often the child support parenting-time adjustment.
- Guardian ad litem
- A court-appointed representative who investigates and reports on the child's best interests, often serving as an advocate in custody disputes.
- Parenting time adjustment
- A guideline formula modification reducing or increasing support based on the number of overnights the child spends with each parent.
- Imputed income
- Income a court assigns to a voluntarily unemployed or underemployed parent based on earning capacity for support calculations.
- Dissolution of marriage
- The legal termination of a marriage, resolving status, property division, support, and, where children exist, custody and parenting time.
- Prenuptial agreement
- A contract executed before marriage that may fix property rights and support obligations, enforceable if procedurally and substantively fair.
- Equitable distribution
- A property division method dividing marital assets fairly rather than equally, considering factors like contribution, need, and marriage duration.
- Community property
- A marital property regime in which most assets acquired during marriage are owned equally by both spouses and divided equally at dissolution.
- Termination of parental rights
- A permanent severance of the legal parent-child relationship, requiring clear and convincing evidence of statutory grounds and the child's best interests.
- Adoption
- A legal process creating a permanent parent-child relationship, typically extinguishing the birth parents' rights and requiring consent or involuntary termination.
- Paternity establishment
- The legal determination of a child's father, by voluntary acknowledgment, marriage presumption, or genetic testing ordered by the court.
- Protective order
- A court order restraining contact or conduct to prevent domestic violence, often issued ex parte and followed by a hearing.
- Ex parte order
- An emergency order granted on one party's request without notice to the other, typically short-lived pending a full hearing.
- Hearsay exception
- Rules allowing out-of-court statements at trial, such as excited utterances, medical-diagnosis statements, and business records.
- Child hearsay
- Statements by a child offered at trial, admissible under tender-years, outcry, or reliability provisions in many jurisdictions.
- Discovery in family cases
- Pretrial exchange of financial records, interrogatories, and depositions, with mandatory disclosure of income and assets in most jurisdictions.
- Income withholding
- An automatic wage deduction enforcing child or spousal support, often required by statute and administered by a state disbursement unit.
- Modification of support
- A change to an existing support order granted on a showing of a substantial and continuing change in circumstances.
- Contempt of court
- A remedy for willful violation of a family court order, carrying coercive sanctions like fines, remedial jail, or attorney fees.