There’s a lot of nuance when it comes to the practice of family law, and understanding when and how to use various fault based grounds for divorce can be pretty complicated. To put it simply, you must have grounds for divorce in Virginia (and pretty much everywhere), but those grounds can be either fault based...
Divorce
When it comes to divorce, there are – sadly – a lot of cases that involve some form of domestic violence. When I was a newbie, that was so surprising to me. Now, not so much, but still – I end up fielding a lot of questions about what to do, what options are...
You don’t exactly go out and hire an attorney every day. In fact, for many people, it may be a once in a lifetime experience. Sure, it’s not a trip to Bora Bora or a chance to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, but it’s a first – and a one time deal – for a...
My sister in law asked me a question the other day – for a friend of a friend – and it really irritated me. Not that she would ask me a question; that’s fine, we’re really pretty close. But the question itself irked me. Her friend had a friend, from a really long time ago,...
On Wednesday, we discussed what a contested divorce means. We touched a little bit, too, on uncontested divorce – because it’s hard to understand one without the other. Contested refers to a divorce where the parties have not reached an agreement about how the assets and liabilities will be divided; in an uncontested divorce, on...
When you’re researching something new, the terminology can be confusing. The same can be said of divorce, and not only because so many Latin terms and phrases are used. “Contested” and “uncontested” aren’t words that come up very often in everyday life and, if you’re wondering what it means, you’re not alone. If you’re like...
I get a lot of questions about cost in family law cases. I get questions about attorney’s fees, retainers, how to save money, how to pay for the case, and even how to get pro bono help (seriously, though, don’t count on it). It really runs the gamut. And I get it. It’s a...
I got this question the other day – what’s in the divorce seminar that I can’t find on Google – and it made me laugh a little. In one sense, of course, literally everything you need to know about divorce in Virginia probably IS already in Google. In fact, as you probably are also already...