Grandparent Visitation When Your Coparent is Dead or Incapacitated

Grandparent visitation is often a hot button issue – especially when parents separate and/or divorce.  In general, grandparents don’t have a lot of rights to custody and visitation of minor children which, in my opinion, is as it should be.  The parents are the ones who are tasked with making the day to day decisions...

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Discovery – whether as part of a divorce or a child custody case – is essentially the same.  It’s the legal process we use to determine and gain access to the information that we don’t have.  In a divorce case, much of the information we’re looking for is financial, especially if our client has stayed...

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Custody cases are interesting because they can come up in a number of ways, unlike divorce.  In a divorce, you have essentially two options: (1) negotiate a signed separation agreement, or (2) litigate in court. Divorce Cases Where Custody is an Issue Divorce is filed in the circuit court. Custody, though, can present differently.  Custody...

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Common Coparenting Issues: Lifestyle Choices

Lately, I’ve done a whole series of articles on common coparenting issues on everything from travel and relocation to extracurricular activities and birthday parties.  Believe me, all sorts of things come up!  Coparents can find a million different ways to fight with each other, both before and long, long after their divorces or break ups...

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Family law – which includes divorce, child custody, visitation, child support, and spousal support – is a particular area of law that is incredibly state-specific.  What you find to be true in one state is not necessarily true in another.  Even states that are nearby – like, for example, North Carolina and Virginia – are...

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Few things in the world are scarier than facing a custody and visitation case.  Few things, too, are more difficult to gather up-to-date, state-specific information about – at least, if the information you’re looking for is also credible. There are a lot of non-attorneys out there offering advice and opinions, much of which – though...

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Divorcing Virginia Women in the Military

If you’re a woman in the military and you’re getting a divorce, you’re not alone.  Though the reverse dynamic – a man as the active duty military service member and a woman as the dependent spouse – is more common, that doesn’t mean that the reverse doesn’t also occur. Plenty of women are active duty...

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Birth Certificate and Virginia Child Custody

After I had my babies, I remember being shocked at how quickly personnel from the hospital came by to make sure that I had arranged to pay my bill, that I knew it wasn’t wise to shake a baby, and to fill out the information needed to complete the birth certificate. I never saw a...

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