Once the Complaint and Affidavit of Service have been filed in your divorce case in Maryland, the next thing that happens is you receive a notice from the court for a Scheduling Conference. Many clients want to know what happens at the Scheduling Conference.

The Circuit Court of Anne Arundel has published its Case Management Plan on the Internet, and it has the following description of the Scheduling Conference. Note the possibility of an instant drug test, which really does happen, and catches some clients off-guard.

The Scheduling Conference

Scheduling Conferences are held before a judge or master. For simplicity’s sake, subsequent descriptions will refer to a “Master” only. Scheduling Conferences are set at 15-minute intervals, two days per week. Both parties will be required to be present with counsel unless otherwise excused by the Court. The Assignment Office shall reset the first scheduling conference without the necessity of a postponement request, but the Conference shall occur within 30 days of the date of the original Scheduling Conference unless a party objects in writing.

In some instances, the Court may permit participation by telephone where attendance would present a significant hardship. The person participating by telephone will be recorded in open court, along with those participating in the rest of the proceeding.

At the Scheduling Conference, the Master will attempt to assist the parties in reaching an agreement on all contested matters. If an agreement can be reached, the Master will place the agreement on the record and an Order will be prepared reflecting the agreement. If it is a divorce matter and the necessary witnesses are present, brief testimony may be taken on the grounds for divorce and a report and recommendation issued.

If it is clear that there remain contested issues, the Master will identify those issues and complete a Scheduling Order setting in discovery and filing deadlines and scheduling a Pre-trial Conference.

The Master will also identify and recommend any preliminary orders required in the matter. Preliminary orders include the following:

• order to attend parenting seminar
• order for custody/visitation mediation
• order for property alternative dispute resolution
• other alternative dispute resolution orders
• orders appointing counsel for a minor child or party
• order for custody evaluation unit investigation
• order for psychological evaluation(s)
• order for pendente lite hearing
• order for substance abuse assessment
• order for monitored transfer and/or supervised visitation
• order for referral to Domestic Relations Division
• any other investigations or orders the Master feels may be necessary to expedite the case

In most cases, no merits hearing will be scheduled at this time. Rather, the case will be managed to facilitate settlement prior to or at the time of the Pre-trial Conference.

A Merits Hearing will be scheduled only if and when the Pre-trial Conference fails to resolve all pending issues in the case and all discovery, investigations, reports and joint statements of marital property have been completed.

The purpose of this policy is to schedule a merits hearing for only those cases which are ready for trial. The Court is attempting to facilitate settlement as early on in the case as possible to spare the parties unnecessary expense and delay. By setting a date for the Merits Hearing later on in the case, the Court can more accurately predict the number of cases to be heard, can schedule the appropriate number of judges, and parties and counsel can be assured that their case will proceed to trial on the scheduled day.

Alimony in Maryland terminates automatically on remarriage, but not on cohabitation, unless the parties agree otherwise. There are various ways to “agree otherwise”. Here are some sample cohabitation clauses from the case of Gordon v. Gordon, 342 Md. 294, 301-303 (Md. 1996).

1. This is the clause that was in dispute in the Gordon case:

Husband shall pay to Wife as alimony the sum of $ 6,000 per month in advance, commencing on the first day of December, and continuing on the first day of each and every month thereafter. The said payments shall terminate upon the death of the Husband, the death of the Wife, the remarriage of the Wife, or at such time as the Wife reaches the age of 59 1/2, whichever first occurs. The said payments shall also terminate in the event the Wife resides with any unrelated man without the benefit of marriage for a period continuing for beyond sixty (60) consecutive days.

2. This clause defines remarriage to include cohabitation:

For the purposes of this agreement the term “remarriage of the Wife” shall be defined as either a ceremonial civil or religious marriage or a situation whereby the wife habitually and continuously resides with another man without benefit of a marriage ceremony for a period of 120 days consecutively or 120 days cumulatively within a sixteen-month period.

S. SCHLISSEL, 2 SEPARATION AGREEMENTS AND MARITAL CONTRACTS § 19.28, at 511 (1986 & 1992 Cum. Supp.).

3. Cohabitation as a separate terminating event:

The payor shall pay to the payee, for her support, maintenance, or alimony, the sum of dollars per week, until the death of either party, or the remarriage of the payee, or the payee’s cohabitation with another person, whichever event shall first occur. For the purposes of this Agreement, the term “cohabitation” includes any shared occupancy of a dwelling, whether or not the occupants engage in sexual relations.

A. LINDEY & L. PARLEY, 1 LINDEY ON SEPARATION AGREEMENTS AND ANTENUPTIAL CONTRACTS 15A-6 (1995) (Form 15A.05) (emphasis added). See also S. GREEN & J. LONG, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LAW AGREEMENTS 372-73 (1984 & 1994 Cum. Supp.) (Appendix 3).

4. Another example:

Support shall continue until the death of the husband, the death of the Wife, her remarriage, or her cohabitation with another person with whom she has a romantic relationship.

5. Requiring a financial relationship between the cohabitants as a condition for terminating support:

The Wife shall also be deemed to have remarried for the purpose of this Article if she shall live with an unrelated adult male to whom she is not legally married in the same abode in a situation where the parties are, in effect, living as Husband and Wife and the unrelated adult male should be supporting, or contributing to the support, of the Wife.

SCHLISSEL, supra, § 19.31, at 513.

6. Requiring a common residence for a specific length of time to establish cohabitation:

Remarriage shall be defined so as to include her cohabitation or residing with an unrelated male for either thirty (30) consecutive days or ninety (90) days in any one hundred eighty (180) day period.

TURNBULL & WASE, supra, at 256.

Even when you have a cohabitation clause, disputes can still arise. In the Gordon case, the wife lived with another man for 60 days, but the court of appeals sent the case back to the trial court to determine if that was really cohabitation or not.

“There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.” — Gore Vidal

Does alimony end on cohabitation? Unlike our neighboring state, Virginia, Maryland does not terminate alimony upon cohabitation by statute. Section 11-108 of the Family Law Article of the Maryland Code states:

Unless the parties agree otherwise, alimony terminates:

• on the death of either party,
• on the marriage of the recipient or
• if the court finds that termination is necessary to avoid a harsh and inequitable result.

You can put a clause in your agreement that alimony stops on cohabitation. But what if you do not have such a clause? And your agreement further says that alimony is non-modifable?

The court in Moore v. Jacobs, 373 Md. 185 (2003), said that an agreement to pay alimony terminated on remarriage even though the agreement said alimony was non-modifiable and did not mention remarriage as a terminating event. The court reasoned that termination was not the same as modification. Also, the court said the statute controls and it created a presumption that alimony terminates on remarriage which was not overcome unless the agreement specifically stated that alimony did not terminate on remarriage.

The statute does not create a presumption as to cohabitation because cohabitation is not listed as a terminating event in the statute. But can you argue, based on Moore, that unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the court can still terminate alimony upon cohabitation to avoid a harsh and inequitable result? As always, I will appreciate your comments.

My wife and I had our annual argument last night about who has the harder job. I am a high pressure lawyer and she is a stay at home mom. I thought I would win hands down.

She came armed with some statistics, however. According to the mom pay wizard calculator at Salary.Com, the typical stay at home mother works 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime for a total of 92 hours a week.

Mothers perform ten jobs at home, namely:

• cook
• housekeeper
• day care center teacher
• laundry machine operator
• van driver
• facilities manager
• janitor
• computer operator
• chief executive officer
• psychologist

Salary.Com also says it would take $138,095 a year to buy those services if she did not perform them. So who has the harder job in your marriage? Leave a comment.

The lawyers at Thyden Gross and Callahan have launched a new website called Constructive Divorce. The site has blogs, articles, laws, cases, rules, child support calculators, free forms, books and a divorce issues library. A free divorce newsletter will be added soon. Thyden Gross and Callahan is an “av” rated firm in Chevy Chase, Maryland, serving clients in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Divorce services include negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, arbitration and litigation.

This weekend I completed the Family Law Arbitration Training presented by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers along with 30 other attorneys mainly from Montgomery County, Maryland. I am now a family law arbitrator, along with several of my colleagues, and we will begin offering these services to our clients immediately.

Arbitration is another way to resolve the issues in your divorce. If you cannot reach an agreement with your spouse, and you do not want to go through the time and expense of trial, then arbitration might be for you. It is like hiring a private judge. You set the rules by agreement. You can pick the arbitrator, the time and place and how much time you will have to present your case.

By agreement, the arbitrator’s decision is final. Appeal is difficult unless there has been bias or the arbitrator has made a mathematical error or exceeded his or her authority. You can arbitrate everything except child custody.