Family Law

Two roads out of a marriage — and the right one depends on your facts.La. C.C. arts. 102 & 103

Louisiana provides two principal paths to divorce. Under Article 102, a spouse files first and the divorce is granted after the parties have lived separate and apart for the required period — 180 days where there are no minor children, 365 days where there are. Under Article 103, a divorce may be granted when the spouses have already lived separate and apart for the requisite period before filing, or immediately on fault grounds such as adultery or a felony conviction.

Covenant marriages follow their own, more limited rules. Aertker Legal counsels clients on which route fits their circumstances, protects their position from the first filing, and handles the related questions — support, custody, and property — that a divorce sets in motion.

Every custody decision answers a single question: what serves the child.La. C.C. arts. 131 & 134

Louisiana courts decide custody by the best interest of the child, weighing the statutory factors of Article 134 — stability, each parent’s capacity, the existing relationships, and more. Courts favor arrangements that assure a child frequent and continuing contact with both parents, typically through joint custody with a designated domiciliary parent and a clear implementation plan.

The firm handles original custody determinations, modifications when circumstances change, and relocation disputes under Louisiana’s relocation statute — building each case around the child’s well-being, supported by clear, organized evidence.

• Joint and sole custody determinations
• Domiciliary-parent designation
• Detailed custody implementation plans
• Visitation and holiday schedules
• Relocation and move-away disputes (R.S. 9:355.1 et seq.)
• Modification of existing custody orders

Support is set by guideline — but the inputs are where it is won.La. R.S. 9:315 et seq.

Louisiana calculates child support under statutory income-shares guidelines that combine both parents’ income, the number of children, and allowable add-ons such as health insurance and child care. The formula is fixed; the figures that go into it are not. Accurate income determination, proper treatment of self-employment and bonuses, and correct credits make the difference.

Aertker Legal prepares precise, well-documented support calculations — and litigates deviations, modifications, and enforcement when the guideline result does not fit the facts.

Need, means, and fault — measured carefully, and capped by law.La. C.C. arts. 111–112

Louisiana recognizes two forms of spousal support: interim periodic support, which maintains the standard of living during the divorce, and final periodic support after it. Final support is available only to a spouse who is free from fault and in need, is weighed against statutory factors, and is capped at one-third of the obligor’s net income.

These determinations turn on detailed financial proof and, where final support is sought, on the question of fault. The firm develops both rigorously, whether seeking or defending against an award.

In Louisiana, what you built together is presumed to be shared.La. R.S. 9:2801

Louisiana is a community-property state. Absent a matrimonial agreement, assets and debts acquired during the marriage fall into the community of acquets and gains and are divided upon divorce. The work is in the details: classifying each asset as community or separate, tracing separate property, valuing businesses and retirement accounts, and partitioning the estate under the judicial partition procedure of La. R.S. 9:2801.

Aertker Legal handles community-property partitions, reimbursement claims, and the prenuptial and matrimonial agreements that define the regime in the first place — with the organized, detailed accounting these cases demand.

• Classification of community vs. separate property
• Tracing and reimbursement claims
• Valuation of businesses, homes, and retirement accounts
• Judicial partition of community property
• Prenuptial and matrimonial agreements
• Allocation of community debts

The happiest matters in family law — and the ones that most reward precision.None

Adoption is where family law is at its best, and Aertker Legal handles the full range under the Louisiana Children’s Code: intrafamily adoptions, stepparent adoptions, and agency and private placements. Each carries its own consent, notice, and procedural requirements, and a clean record is what carries the petition to a final decree.

The firm guides families through every step, from the petition through the hearing, so the day in court is the celebration it should be.