In Virginia, one of the requirements to qualify for a no-fault divorce is having lived separate and apart from your husband for a period of one year, if you have minor children, or six months, if you don’t have minor children. Living separate and apart doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to live in separate...
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Any time you go to court, you should remember that it is very important to make a good impression on the judge. It seems obvious enough, but for many couples going through divorce, simply being in the same room (especially in such an adversarial setting) is enough to make normal, otherwise responsible adults break down...
If you’re concerned that your child’s father will take your child and refuse to bring her back, you need to get a custody order in place as quickly as possible. Until you have one, it’s virtually impossible to enforce a specific custody and visitation schedule. The problem, of course, is that a parent, who has...
The kids are headed back to college, and the expenses are adding up. If you’re a single parent, the cost of college can be daunting, especially if your child’s other parent isn’t as interested in footing the bill as you are. As far as Virginia law is concerned, your child became an adult on the...
From the moment that you and your husband separate, you’re no longer batting on the same team. You can’t speak to each other the way you used to, and you certainly shouldn’t just automatically trust him. As far as the children are concerned, you should always been looking for ways to cooperate and co-parent more...
Many women are terrified about the possibility of their divorce winding up in court. I can understand the feeling. It’s definitely disconcerting to give someone who knows so little about your case (usually, he only knows whatever he can learn in the thirty minutes to one hour that has been allotted for your hearing) so...
It’s a very rare thing for a parent to completely lose custody of their child. In most cases, because the courts feel so strongly that having two parents is in every child’s best interests, even deadbeat dads are reserved the right to visit with the child, and even if they never exercise that right. Even...
Even if you are awarded primary physical custody, you’re going to have to allow your child’s father to have some visitation with your child. For some women, this is a tough pill to swallow, especially if dad doesn’t typically make the best choices when he has the child or when the relationship between mom and...