Dissolution of marriage
Missouri courts dissolve a marriage on a finding that it is irretrievably broken; Kansas speaks of incompatibility. In both states the real work is not the ground but the untangling: dividing marital property equitably, addressing maintenance, and building a parenting arrangement that will survive contact with real schedules. We handle dissolutions from the genuinely amicable to the genuinely contested, and we price and staff them differently, because they are different.
Where both parties want a dignified process, we work through negotiation, mediation, or collaborative practice, and many of our matters resolve without a contested hearing. Where the other side mistakes decency for weakness, our trial preparation is the reason that mistake is rarely made twice.
Children, custody, and parenting plans
Missouri requires a parenting plan addressing legal and physical custody, a residential schedule, and how decisions and disputes will be handled; Kansas requires the equivalent. The statutory standard in both states is the best interests of the child, and judges in Jackson County and Johnson County alike can tell within minutes which parent has been living that standard and which has been performing it.
We build parenting plans around the child's actual week: school, activities, distance between households, and the ages the plan must grow through. A plan that fits is a plan that gets followed, and a plan that gets followed rarely returns to court.
Support: calculated, then examined
Child support in Missouri begins with the Form 14 presumed amount, and in Kansas with the state's guidelines worksheet, but 'begins' is the operative word. Self-employment income, bonuses and RSUs, the cost of health insurance and child care, and the realities of shared physical custody all move the number. We make sure the inputs are true before anyone argues about the output.
Maintenance is more discretionary, and therefore more contested. We present it, for either side of the question, with the documentation that gives a court something firmer than sympathy to rule on.
Agreements before and during marriage
A well-drafted prenuptial agreement is not a plan for divorce; it is a disclosure exercise that many couples describe afterward as clarifying. We draft and review prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, with particular care where a family business, a farm, an expected inheritance, or children from a prior marriage are involved. Both states enforce these agreements when they are entered fairly, disclosed fully, and drafted competently. We are rigorous about all three.
After the decree
Lives change faster than judgments. We handle modifications of custody and support when circumstances have genuinely shifted, enforcement when orders are being ignored, and relocation notices and disputes, which in Missouri carry strict statutory notice requirements that trip up even well-meaning parents. If a decree from years ago no longer matches your family's reality, that is a solvable problem.