What do you do if a judge reverses a divorce decree?

There are very few things that are certain in this life. The joke goes that the only sure things are death and taxes. Laws have been around for millennia -- the idea being that they provide some sense of surety about life. That's the concept, at least. You go to court, get a decision and you know where you stand in the eyes of all.

But laws are subject to interpretation and that means they can be subject to change. There are also a lot of detailed processes that need to be followed. If one step is missed or one factor is overlooked, it can lead to long drawn out proceedings and a great deal of uncertainty.

This is true whether the issues being addressed are criminal or civil in Minnesota. In matters dealing with family law, the more complicated a situation, the more potential there is for things to go haywire. Attention to detail and care for the protection of rights is the reason why it's always a good idea to be working with an experienced attorney. No two cases are ever alike and those that involve significant assets only make resolving things more difficult.

Sometimes, though it can be the law that creates the difficulty, as a case out of Ohio reflects. The matter involves a divorce two women are seeking to end their same-sex marriage. They had been married in California in 2008 and now live in Ohio.

Early last month, a magistrate in Athens County granted the divorce, and a judge in the county signed off on it later that same month. The magistrate's decision came just days before a federal appeals court ruled Ohio's ban on same-sex marriage constitutional.

Then, last week, the judge who had signed off on the dissolution issued an order vacating his decree. He said he hadn't been aware that the parties involved were of the same sex and that since state law doesn't recognize their marriage, he had no standing to grant a divorce.

What that means for the couple is that they are once again married. And the only options said to be available to them are to either appeal the judge's decision through the state system, or wait for federal courts to eventually resolve the same-sex marriage issue nationally. When that will happen, though, is anyone's guess.

Source: The Athens News, "Judge vacates same-sex divorce," Conor Morris, Dec. 21, 2014