On Friday, we talked about custody and visitation cases where a grandparent – or other non parent – petitions the court for custody and/or visitation. The cases I described on Friday are otherwise normal custody cases, where mom and dad share custody and visitation of the minor children in question. In those cases, grandparents (or...
Grandparent and Non Parent Rights in Custody Cases Part 2
Literally no one ever wants to pay attorney’s fees. It’s a reoccurring theme, and one I’m more or less used to at this point. We get questions every single day about pro bono work, free consults, and whether we work with legal service insurance provided through employers. When women find out that we really don’t...
Some people are chronic negotiators. Depending on their circumstances, the nature of their relationship with their soon to be ex, and the facts surrounding the separation, this may or may not be a good thing. I’ve had a handful of really strong minded clients in my day, who come in and tell me what they...
Prenuptial agreements are pretty commonly misunderstood. I often hear that someone should may consider a prenup if they had substantial assets before the marriage that they wanted to protect. Under Virginia law, though, property that you earned or owned prior to marriage is already separate – it’s already yours, it stays yours, and it doesn’t...
Women sometimes look for an out of area lawyer for a number of reasons. Distrust in the system generally is sometimes one. Another might be that you come from a smaller community, and your husband has already sought out and maybe interviewed with the most prominent attorneys there. (Because of attorney ethical rules, if an...
I heard a new one the other day. It doesn’t happen all that often, at this stage in the game, but yesterday it did. I was talking to a woman who told me that her child’s father, after their divorce, tried to one-up her in every single way imaginable – even with the tooth fairy!...
Leases and Divorce If you and your soon-to-be ex husband don’t own real estate together, well, then, that’s one less thing to fight over or worry about. Whether one of you buys out the interest of the other or you decide to sell your home, there are almost always some difficulties. If you sell the...
Probably one of my absolute least favorite things in the entire world is when I have a consultation, and she tells me that she has court next week (or tomorrow, or in two days). So, yeah, next week is always kind of tricky – especially if your court hearing would require any kind of preparation...