When you’re happily married, everything is “ours”. But as soon as one of you starts talking about a potential separation, it’s funny how many things suddenly become “mine” – especially from a man’s perspective. I’ve only ever represented women only in divorce and custody cases, so I can speak most easily and comfortably about a...
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Here in Hampton Roads, the military presence is everywhere. From bumper stickers proclaiming “I LOVE JET NOISE” to various deployments and homecomings, we see military all day, every day, everywhere. It’s something we’re proud of, and something that gives us a sense of regional identity. We see uniformed active duty service members sitting in restaurants,...
If you and your husband are already pretty much in agreement, that’s great! Still, there are procedural steps that you’re going to want to take to protect yourself, and to ensure that as you move towards an uncontested divorce, you’re in as strong of a position as possible. What do I need to get an...
It should come as no surprise to you that husbands pretty much hate spousal support. No matter what our personal situation or the choices you and your husband made during your marriage, he’s going to say that he doesn’t think you need or deserve to receive spousal support. And, if he files for divorce first,...
Things always get more difficult around the holidays. People who are thinking about divorce don’t really tend to take action at this point; for the most part, they keep it together for their families through the holiday season. But for the people who have an existing divorce or custody case, it tends to become more...
Women ask me all the time whether they should just get custody handled first, and then come back and handle the divorce itself. In a sense, I think I get what they’re saying – custody is the more pressing concern immediately, and needing to have that handled is clouding everybody’s judgment about everything. Maybe they...
If there’s anything that’s lagging behind the times in divorce and custody, it’s child support guidelines. (Just kidding. This is Virginia. We’re lagging behind in a lot of places, I’m just choosing to talk about one area that, in my opinion, is particularly behind the times.) It’s kind of like no one has any idea...
Every divorce is a little bit different, and the assets (and, it must be said, the liabilities) are different, too. Usually, it’s some kind of version of the same; a divorce set of “usual suspects”, as it were, but in some cases, it’s more complicated. My least favorite cases are the ones where my client...