Author: Family Lawyer
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Never Married
A person who has never been a partner in a registered marriage….
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Non-Dependent Child
This refers to a natural, step, adopted or foster child of a couple or lone parent usually resident in the household, aged over 15 years and who is not a full-time student aged 15-24 years, and who has no partner or child of his/her own usually resident in the household….
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Non-Dependent Children
In couple or one-parent families, sons or daughters who are aged over 15 years and who are not full-time students aged 15-24 years (except those classified as husbands, wives or lone parents). (see also Dependent children)…
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Matricentric Family
A nuclear family in which there is no continuing adult male functioning as a husband and father. This man is missing usually due to death, divorce, abandonment, or no marriage having taken place. In such families, the mother raises her children more or less alone and subsequently has the major […]
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Matrilineal Descent
Unilineal descent that follows the female line. With this pattern, people are related if they can trace descent through females to the same female ancestor. Both males and females inherit membership in a matrilineal family line, but only females pass it on to their descendents (as shown in the […]
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Median Value
Refers to the middle value in a distribution such as age and duration which separate a relevant population or sample into two equal groups, with one above the value and the other below the value….
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Minutes Of Order
Draft terms of agreement placed before the court with a request that a consent order be made in the same terms….
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Matrimonial Home
The residence where the spouses live together or last lived together as man and wife. At common law, a deserted wife had a right in personam to stay in the matrimonial home which right arose under the irrevocable authority that her husband was presumed to have conferred upon her. The right […]
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Marianismo
The Spanish and Latin American ideal of women being modest, restrained, virtuous, and nurturing. Women are expected to be sexually abstinent before marriage and passive in response to their husbands’ demands after marriage. Women are expected to have sexual intercourse only with their […]
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Maintenance Pending Suit
If the divorce may take some time to resolve, temporary maintenance can be requested pending the outcome of the divorce proceedings….
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Married
‘Married’ has a different meaning depending on whether it refers to the concept of ‘Social marital status’ or the concept of ‘Registered marital status’. According to the concept of ‘Social marital status’, the term married refers to the status of a person who is […]
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Machismo
The Spanish and Latin American ideal of men being confident, strong, dignified, brave, overtly masculine, and sexually active. This ideal of a macho pronounce the word, or real man, was brought to the New World from Spain and Portugal. Its ultimate origin is probably to be found in […]
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Lump Sum
A payment of a capital amount of money, usually as part of a financial settlement….
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Large-Scale Society
Generally a society with cities, industry, intensive agriculture, and a complex international economy. Such societies have socio-economic classes and a government with hierarchies of officials. The importance of kinship is diminished in comparison to small-scale societies….
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Koran
The sacred book of Islam….