The most common reasons to contest a divorce are disagreements over how property and debt get divided, where the children live and on what schedule, how much spousal or child support changes hands, and whether an existing prenuptial or postnuptial agreement should control the outcome. Contesting a divorce doesn’t mean trying to stop the marriage from ending. Every state offers no-fault divorce, so the dissolution itself isn’t really up for debate. What you can fight over is the fallout: who keeps what, who pays whom, and where the kids sleep on Tuesday nights. Those fights are what a contested divorce actually is, and they can run for months or years depending on how far apart the two sides sit.
Property and Debt You Believe Are Being Divided Unfairly
Property division is the most common battleground, because “fair” is a subjective word and both spouses usually have different ideas about what it means. Most states follow an equitable distribution model, where a judge divides assets and debts in a way that’s fair given the couple’s circumstances. That doesn’t automatically mean a 50/50 split. Courts weigh factors like how long the marriage lasted, each spouse’s income and earning potential, non-financial contributions such as homemaking and childcare, and whether either spouse wasted marital funds.1Justia. Community Property vs. Equitable Distribution in Property Division Law
Before anything gets divided, you have to agree on what it’s worth. That’s where things get contentious fast. A family home, a retirement account, a small business, stock options, cryptocurrency holdings — each requires a valuation, and the two sides rarely agree on the number. Spouses frequently hire competing experts who arrive at different figures, and the gap between those figures can represent hundreds of thousands of dollars. If your spouse’s proposed split rests on a lowball valuation of an asset you’d be giving up, that alone is a reason to push back.
Is This Asset Even Marital Property?
A threshold dispute in many divorces is whether a particular asset even belongs in the marital pot. Property you owned before the marriage or received as a gift or inheritance during the marriage is often classified as separate property, which stays with the original owner. But separate property can lose that protection if it gets mixed with marital funds. An inheritance deposited into a joint bank account that both spouses spent from for years may be treated as marital property, in whole or in part. Classification fights are especially common with businesses started before the marriage that grew in value during it.
Your Spouse Spent Down Marital Money
When a marriage is falling apart, one spouse sometimes goes on a spending spree, racks up debt, or funnels money to a new partner. Courts call this dissipation: using marital assets for purposes unrelated to the marriage after the relationship has broken down. If you can prove dissipation, the court may reduce the other spouse’s share of the remaining property to compensate. Gambling losses, lavish gifts to an affair partner, and deliberate destruction of property all qualify. A proposed split that ignores missing funds is one of the stronger reasons to say no.
You Suspect Hidden Assets
Some spouses go further than spending. They actively hide assets. Underreporting income, transferring property to friends or relatives, or opening undisclosed accounts are tactics that surface regularly in contested divorces. Courts take this seriously. A spouse caught concealing assets can face sanctions, an unfavorable property division, and in extreme cases contempt of court or perjury charges, since financial disclosures are typically signed under oath. If you suspect hidden assets, a forensic accountant can trace the money, though the cost is real: expect to pay at least a few thousand dollars for straightforward cases and substantially more when large or complex holdings are involved.
Custody and Parenting Time Are at Stake
Custody disputes are the most emotionally charged part of any contested divorce, and they’re also the area where courts exercise the most independent judgment. A judge isn’t bound by what either parent wants. The standard in every state is the best interests of the child, and the court will override both parents’ preferences if neither proposal serves that standard well.
Two distinct types of custody are at stake. Legal custody covers who makes major decisions about the child’s education, healthcare, and religious upbringing. Physical custody determines where the child lives day to day. Parents can share one or both, and the combinations matter. You might have joint legal custody but primary physical custody to one parent, or equal time-sharing with joint decision-making authority. The specifics are where most custody fights happen.
The Parenting Schedule
Even parents who agree on the broad structure often clash over the schedule itself. Who gets the children on weekdays versus weekends? How are holidays and school breaks divided? What happens on birthdays? Where do pickups and drop-offs occur? These details sound minor until you’re living them every week, and a poorly designed schedule creates friction that lasts for years. Courts prefer schedules that minimize disruption to the child’s routine, but what counts as minimal disruption depends heavily on the family.
A Custody Evaluator’s Recommendation Went Against You
In high-conflict cases, a court may appoint a custody evaluator: a mental health professional who investigates each parent’s home, interviews the children, speaks with teachers and doctors, and sometimes administers psychological tests. The evaluator then submits a report recommending a custody arrangement. The report isn’t binding, but judges give it significant weight because the evaluator spent far more time with the family than the court ever will. If you disagree with the recommendation, you can challenge it at trial, but overcoming a professional’s assessment is an uphill battle. That’s a decision worth making with a clear-eyed read of your evidence.
One Parent Wants to Move
One of the hardest custody contests arises when a parent wants to move a significant distance with the child, for a new job, to be closer to family, or to start over. The other parent’s relationship with the child is directly threatened, and courts treat these cases with particular scrutiny. Factors typically include the reason for the move, the distance involved, the child’s age and ties to the current community, and how the move would affect the other parent’s ability to maintain a meaningful relationship. When one parent has sole custody, they often have a presumptive right to relocate, but the other parent can challenge the move by showing it would harm the child.
Child Support Numbers You Don’t Trust
Child support is less discretionary than custody. Every state uses a formula. Most base the calculation on both parents’ incomes, the number of children, and how much time each parent spends with them.2Administration for Children and Families. How Is the Amount of My Child Support Order Set? The formula itself isn’t usually contested, but the inputs are. A spouse who is self-employed or receives irregular income creates room for argument about what their real earnings look like. The same goes for a parent who voluntarily takes a lower-paying job. Courts can sometimes impute income based on what that parent could earn, not what they choose to earn. If the income number driving the formula is wrong, the resulting support figure is wrong, and that’s a reason to contest.
Spousal Support You Think Is Wrong
Spousal support (called alimony or maintenance depending on where you live) generates some of the bitterest disputes in divorce. The paying spouse almost always thinks it’s too much or too long. The receiving spouse almost always thinks it’s not enough. Unlike child support, there’s rarely a simple formula. Judges weigh a range of factors, including how long the marriage lasted, each spouse’s income and earning capacity, their age and health, and the standard of living during the marriage.
Support also comes in different forms. Rehabilitative support is meant to carry a spouse through education or job training so they can become self-sufficient, and it has a built-in end date. Permanent support, which is becoming rarer, may be awarded after very long marriages where one spouse sacrificed career opportunities for decades. The type, amount, and duration are all separately contestable, and each one can swing a settlement by tens of thousands of dollars per year.
Temporary Support During the Case
Contested divorces take time, and the financial imbalance between spouses doesn’t pause while you wait for a final order. Courts can award temporary support, sometimes called pendente lite support, to maintain the financial status quo during the proceedings. This is especially common when one spouse controlled the household income and the other needs money for basic living expenses and legal fees. Temporary support isn’t necessarily a preview of the final award. A judge may order a different amount or structure once all the evidence is in. But it’s a critical early fight, because the spouse receiving temporary support has less pressure to settle quickly, while the spouse paying it has a strong incentive to resolve things fast.
A Prenup or Postnup You Want to Set Aside
If your spouse wants the divorce to follow the terms of a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, and those terms are unfavorable to you, contesting the agreement’s enforceability is a distinct legal strategy. These agreements are generally upheld, but courts will throw them out under specific circumstances.
The most successful challenges fall into a few categories:
- Involuntariness. You were pressured or coerced into signing. A prenup presented the night before a wedding with no time for independent review is the classic example.
- Inadequate financial disclosure. Your spouse didn’t fully reveal their assets and debts before you signed. If you didn’t know what you were giving up, the agreement isn’t considered a knowing bargain.
- Unconscionability. The terms were so one-sided at the time of signing that no reasonable person would have agreed to them. Courts evaluate this based on the circumstances when the agreement was made, not how things look at the time of divorce.
A majority of states have adopted some version of the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act, which requires the agreement to be in writing, signed by both parties, and executed voluntarily. An agreement that eliminates spousal support entirely can also be challenged if enforcing it would leave one spouse eligible for public assistance. One boundary worth knowing: successfully voiding a prenup doesn’t automatically give you a better deal. It just means the court divides everything under the default rules, which may or may not work in your favor.
Tax Consequences That Change What a Settlement Is Really Worth
Tax implications don’t always get the attention they deserve during divorce negotiations, but they can quietly shift the real value of a settlement by thousands of dollars. A larger share of the assets on paper means less if you’re stuck with a bigger tax bill. That alone is a reason to contest terms that look even on their face.
Alimony After 2018
For any divorce or separation agreement executed after 2018, alimony payments are not deductible by the person paying and not counted as taxable income for the person receiving them.3Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 452, Alimony and Separate Maintenance This change is permanent and does not expire. It eliminated what used to be a significant tax planning opportunity: under the old rules, a high-earning payer could deduct alimony while the lower-earning recipient reported it as income taxed in a lower bracket. That dynamic no longer exists. If you’re modifying an older agreement, the new tax treatment applies only if the modification explicitly says it adopts the post-2018 rules.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 504 (2025), Divorced or Separated Individuals
Transferred Property Carries Its Original Basis
Transferring property between spouses as part of a divorce settlement is not a taxable event. Federal law treats these transfers as gifts, with no gain or loss recognized at the time of the transfer, whether it happens during the marriage or after the divorce, as long as it’s related to the divorce.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1041 – Transfers of Property Between Spouses or Incident to Divorce The catch is that the person receiving the property also inherits the original owner’s tax basis. If your spouse bought stock for $10,000 and it’s now worth $100,000, you won’t owe taxes when you receive it in the divorce. But you’ll owe capital gains on $90,000 when you eventually sell. An asset’s after-tax value, not its face value, is what matters when negotiating a fair split.
Filing Status Turns on December 31
Your tax filing status for the entire year depends on your marital status on December 31. If your divorce is final by the last day of the year, you file as single (or head of household if you qualify) for that whole tax year, even if you were married for the first eleven months.6Internal Revenue Service. Filing Taxes After Divorce or Separation This affects your tax bracket, standard deduction, and eligibility for certain credits. The timing of when a divorce is finalized can have real financial consequences, and that’s reason to contest a push to close by year-end or to drag past it.
When Contesting Is Worth It
Every contested issue adds cost. Attorney fees for family law matters vary widely but commonly run several hundred dollars per hour, and a contested divorce that goes to trial can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees alone. Add expert witnesses — forensic accountants for asset tracing, business valuators, custody evaluators, real estate appraisers — and the total climbs further. Court filing fees, deposition costs, and document production expenses accumulate on top of everything else.
None of this means you should avoid contesting issues that genuinely matter. A spouse who rolls over on a business valuation that’s off by $200,000 to save $15,000 in legal fees has made a bad trade. But contesting every minor point out of anger or principle is equally destructive. The smartest approach is picking your battles. Fight hard on the issues with the biggest long-term financial or parental impact, and compromise on the rest. A good family law attorney will help you identify which disputes are worth the investment and which ones aren’t.