Spouses may settle the collateral consequences of divorce in an agreement (convention). They can submit it signed to the court. The court must approve it as long as it is not obviously unreasonable. Only in the case of children's affairs and - to a lesser extent - in the case of the division of retirement assets, the court has to order a solution ex officio. In doing so, it must take into account the spouses' requests.
The court will invite you to a meeting and ask you to submit various documents (family certificate from the civil registry office, tax return, bank statements, pension fund statement, etc.).
Children's matters
Parental care and determination of the place of residence
As a rule, parents have joint parental custody of their children. Neither can then decide alone on a change of residence of the child. If they cannot agree, the court decides. In exceptional cases, the court can assign parental care to one parent alone or withdraw it from both parents.
Residence
In the case of separated or divorced parents, the domicile of a minor child is the domicile of the parent with whom a child is registered. This place is decisive for school attendance, social welfare, taxes and other official matters.
Visitation and vacation rights
The guideline is always the best interests of the child. As long as this is respected, the parents are free to regulate the so-called visitation and vacation rights. Actually, it is about the division of care shares. The law does not provide for a specific visitation and vacation entitlement. If the parents can come to an agreement, taking into account the age of the children, they are free to decide which visitation and vacation arrangements they want to make and how they will handle them later.
Childcare models
The assessment and allocation of care times to the parents should be based on the best interests of the child. There are different models:
- The usual residential model, in which children live primarily with one parent and are with the other parent only on alternating weekends, at most one afternoon in between, and also during some vacation weeks and holidays.
- The extensive division of care times between both parents (referred to as "alternating custody"). There is no exact limit for this. Depending on the court, the cut-off point for the residence model starts at 30 to 40 percent care shares.
- The nest model, in which the children always stay in the same home and the parents take turns caring for them there.
A justified solution supported by both spouses is usually approved by the divorce judge.
Division of assets (property division)
In the event of a divorce, assets and debts (including outstanding alimony payments) must be recorded and allocated to the spouses. The property settlement is to be carried out. The date of initiation of the divorce proceedings (filing of the divorce petition with the court) is decisive for determining the inventory of assets and liabilities; the date of divorce is decisive for the valuation.
Bank and PostFinance powers of attorney must be cancelled, access to the other spouse's credit cards must be closed, joint accounts must be liquidated.
If one spouse or both have a property jointly, the financing shares are to be determined and any profit or loss allocated. In the case of joint ownership, the question of what is to be done with the property must be clarified, whether the continuation of the mortgages by one of the spouses alone is possible, whether a sale should possibly be initiated.
Division of retirement benefits (pension equalization)
Marital AHV credits are divided between the spouses by the compensation office. It must be determined who is to receive the AHV education credits. Marital pension fund and vested benefit credits must also be divided. This can be agreed in a divorce settlement, but requires the approval of the judge. In most cases, a half division is made. In exceptional cases, this may be deviated from.
Maintenance for children and divorced spouses
According to the law and case law, it must be clarified for children and for spouses whether maintenance payments are to be made, in what amount and for how long. There may be different phases, for each of which a complete calculation must be made. The due maintenance is to be determined, furthermore the earning possibilities of the spouses, the living costs with external child care and taxes, taking into account the school levels and the number of children.
Costs
The court, lawyer and mediation costs are to be divided between the spouses in the divorce agreement. The amounts involved range from several thousand to several tens of thousands of Swiss francs. If the spouses do not have sufficient financial means, the court may grant free legal aid upon request. The payment of the costs for the court and the own lawyer (but not for the opposing lawyer) is thus postponed, but not cancelled. The state will later reclaim the costs as soon as the financial circumstances have improved.
