Rhode Island Matrimonial Vocational Expert Services

The Rhode Island Family Court's homepage says the court was created to focus special attention on individual and social problems concerning families and children, and its Domestic Relations Clerk's Office processes all domestic relations matters, such as complaints for divorce, separate maintenance, child support, child custody and child visitation. The Family Court's Rules of Domestic Relations Procedure govern proceedings arising out of family relationships including marriage, divorce, separation and support, and they name alimony where they set out complaints for modification of alimony or support obligations. The Judiciary's locations page lists the Garrahy, Noel, Murray and McGrath Judicial Complexes, in Providence, Warwick, Newport and Wakefield, as housing the Family Court. The Judiciary's court structure chart draws the Family Court's appeals straight to the Rhode Island Supreme Court, with no court between them. KWVRS's assessment measures the earning capacity of a spouse or parent, the pay the labor market would offer, which can differ from present pay.

These are the files that call for it. One is a spouse who left paid work to raise children or to work unpaid in a family business and has stayed out of the workforce for years; the assessment identifies the occupation that spouse's education and past jobs still support, what it pays, and how long a return to work would take, including any retraining. Another is a spouse said to be underemployed, earning less than schooling and work history would support; the assessment states the work that background does support and whether employers in the spouse's area hire for it. A third is a claimed disability, in which the medical record, not the claim, sets the restrictions; the assessment then names the occupations that fit those restrictions and their pay.

A fourth is a parent who is the main caregiver of a disabled child and whose capacity to earn depends on the hours of work that the child's care, as the records document it, leaves open. The last is a post-judgment complaint for modification of alimony or support obligations, which the Family Court's rules require to come with the applicant's affidavit of current assets, liabilities, income and expenses, answered by the opposing party's own; the assessment compares the spouse's earning capacity on the date of the order with the capacity today, from the records of both dates. The methodology is the same in every one of these files. KWVRS reviews the spouse's schooling, work, financial and any medical records; interviews the spouse and, when the question requires it, tests; identifies through an analysis of transferable skills the jobs the spouse's training and history make available; and surveys what those jobs pay where the spouse lives, from the area wage estimates of the Bureau of Labor Statistics: for a spouse anywhere in Rhode Island, the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA area, which by the Bureau's definitions takes in every county of the state and reaches into Bristol County, Massachusetts, and for any other spouse the area published for that location.

KWVRS accepts matrimonial engagements from either spouse's counsel, the evaluation may be of either spouse, and the opinion is neutral whichever party retains it. Its method does not change with the retaining party: the same records, the same occupational classification and the same published wage series decide the opinion for either spouse's counsel, and the other spouse's expert can rerun every step; the opinion can find that a spouse's present pay already matches or exceeds that capacity. The Family Court's rules let a party require the names and addresses of the other side's proposed expert witnesses and allow a deposition of such a witness only on a court order made on the ground that its lack would result in an injustice or undue hardship. KWVRS's written report carries the whole analysis: the spouse's present earnings beside the pay of the occupations that are open, each data source documented, organized to the court's disclosure requirements. The Family Court's calendar sets the dates of any deposition or trial testimony. KWVRS works with attorneys nationwide from its New Jersey, Virginia and Rhode Island offices. Attorneys confirm the governing rule for their case.