In Virginia, joint legal custody means that coparents have to work together to reach decisions on three main issues: non emergency medical care, education, and religious upbringing. In many cases, we don’t have any issues in any of these three areas though there are some notable exceptions. Sometimes, the issue of vaccinations comes up; in...
Coparenting and Religion
When it comes to custody and visitation decisions, there are a lot of criteria that we – attorneys, judges, and Guardians ad litem – must consider. As a parent, there are a lot of criteria you may be weighing, too. One of those factors is almost certainly the child’s preference. Does the child prefer to...
Let’s start with the maybe not-quite-so-obvious. In family law, it doesn’t really matter what “studies” suggests or what the “data” says. We are not making arguments about what is best for many children, or most children, or some randomized, average, but ultimately representative group of children. We are talking only about your children. The children...
You can get a court order establishing child support in one of two ways. One: You can file a petition with the juvenile court for custody, visitation, and/or child support, go to court, and ask the court to establish child support (as well as, potentially, custody and visitation). This can be either an initial...
No matter how long you were married, the assets you generated in your marriage matter. Not only will you never be younger, but – if you waive too much – you’ll never have the chance to take advantage of compounding interest. That can be the difference between being able to retire and … not. Sure,...
There is so much confusion around family law and all the different ways that cases can come up. Sometimes, it’s a matter of divorce; in othercases, it’s just custody. It’s seldom the question of something seemingly simple – like an annulment – but it is possible that you could just breakup, if you were never...
Just because you and your child’s father share a child (or multiple children) does not mean that you agree about where you should live as you raise them. Divorce often has an immediate impact on a family unit in the sense that one (or both) or the child(ren)’s biological parents would prefer to live somewhere...
Things can be especially tricky in that gray area between separation and the time that you and your soon-to-be ex are able to get a signed agreement or court order in place. Until that time – when you either negotiate and sign an agreement or go to court and the judge puts an order in...