We get lots of frantic inquiries from women about pro bono divorce and custody services – something we really don’t offer (and, frankly, that no other law firm that I’m aware of really does offer, either). Pro bono is a hard thing, for a lot of reasons. Cases are expensive and time consuming; we really...
Virginia Custody Retainer
We get a lot of questions about costs in a divorce case. It’s probably unsurprising, because we’re inundated with the bad stuff about divorce – how much it costs, how long it takes, the damage it causes the children, etc. But, the thing is, divorce isn’t always a bad thing, or, at least, it doesn’t...
I talk a lot about separation agreements – those legal contracts negotiated between husbands and wives that divide up the marital assets and liabilities between the parties so that they can get an uncontested divorce without even going to court. But not every divorce follows this familiar path. Sometimes, for one reason or another, one...
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...
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...