There are very few things as anxiety-inducing as having to go to court, but this is especially true in the case of an emergency motion. In Virginia, one party can file and ask for a hearing to be held on an emergency basis; it is up to the court to either grant or dismiss that...
Monthly Archive: August 2024
There has been so much – sooo much – discussion, especially online, about parental alienation that it’s easy to get confused. Some camps maintain that parental alienation isn’t a thing, while others hammer the point home; and, in any case, you may have seen stories about children in other states who have been sent...
One of the most misunderstood elements of a custody case is the role of the Guardian ad litem. A Guardian ad litem is an attorney – not a child welfare expert, a therapist, or a developmental specialist – appointed to represent the interests of the child to the court. Though, in many cases, the parents...
We’ve hosted our Girl’s Night Out event series for a really long time now, but this next event is a new one for us. On Tuesday, September 10th from 6-8pm, we’ll be at Haygood Skating Rink in Virginia Beach! We’re doing a sort of roller disco theme (probably because of *this* image of the...
In July of 2024, the Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court quietly issued an order stating that parents whose children are involved in a custody and visitation case would no longer be entitled to receive copies of the Guardian ad litem reports issued in their cases. Full disclosure: As practicing family law attorneys,...
Our former managing partner, Kristen D. Hofheimer, passed away in January of 2019 following a long battle with breast cancer. For many of us – myself included – Kristen was more than just a coworker; she was a mentor and a friend. She was also one of the leading forces that drove much of our...
It’s scary how common post-separation abuse is – but it’s something that we see over and over, even in cases where before separation there had never been any overt domestic violence. I don’t want to be a fearmonger – gosh, nothing of the sort! – but I do want to encourage you to stay...
It can be confusing understanding how property is divided in Virginia divorce – or even what, exactly, is divided. In Virginia, there are three classifications for property – hybrid, marital, and separate – and only the marital portions are subject to division. Hybrid is, as its name suggests, part marital and part separate property. ...