USA – ARKANSAS Law and Practice Contributed by: Kathleen Egan, Hannah Lange and Aaron Bundy, Bundy Law
mous. Residence denotes only an act (the act of residing), whereas domicile denotes an act (the act of residing) coupled with the intent that the residence be a permanent home. The dis - tinction between domicile and place of abode is that, while a person can have several homes (or places of abode) at one time, only one of those homes can be the person’s domicile. The home that the person intends or considers to be their permanent home (as in home base) would be the domicile. • In situations where it is not clear if the require - ments either of domicile or place of abode have been met, a residency determination can only be made after thoroughly reviewing the facts on a case-by-case basis. If a party believes jurisdiction does not lie within the county in which the case was filed, that party is free to contest jurisdiction under Section 9-12- 303 of the Arkansas Code Annotated. A party to a matter involving child custody may request a stay in certain circumstances. A trial court’s decision on a motion to stay is within the court’s sound discretion.
A financial support proceeding under the Uni - form Interstate Family Support Act may be stayed if there is a simultaneous proceeding in another court upon the timely, proper challenge of jurisdiction in Arkansas. Arkansas courts may hear financial claims after a foreign divorce if the foreign divorce court did not have personal jurisdiction over the request - ing spouse. 2.2 Service and Process Service and process in financial proceedings are the same as that outlined for divorce actions in 1.1 Grounds, Timeline, Service and Process . 2.3 Division of Assets Property division in the event of divorce is gov - erned by a statute – namely, Section 9-12-315 of the Arkansas Code Annotated. It provides that all marital property should be divided in half between the parties unless a 50/50 division would be inequitable. Factors for making an unequal division of property include: • length of the marriage; • age, health, and station in life of the parties; • occupation of the parties; • amount and sources of income; • vocational skills; • employability; • estate, liabilities and needs of each party and opportunity of each for further acquisition of capital assets and income; • contribution of each party in the acquisition, preservation or appreciation of marital prop - erty, including services as a homemaker; and • the federal income tax consequences of the court’s division of property. When marital property is divided in a way that is not 50/50, the court must state the reasons for
2. Financial Proceedings 2.1 Choice of Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction for actions for alimony or spousal support in Arkansas is governed under Section 9-12-303 of the Arkansas Code Annotated, just as in divorce actions. If a party believes jurisdic - tion does not lie within the county in which the case was filed, that party is free to contest juris - diction under Section 9-12-303 of the Arkansas Code Annotated.
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