What is the Virginia Child Custody Case Process Like?

The legal process is not at all intuitive, so if you’re wondering what to expect – well, that makes a lot of sense.  Custody cases are some of the more challenging cases to navigate, too, because they’re handled in juvenile and domestic relations district courts, which – if you’ve had any run ins with the...

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Navigating coparenting can seem impossible, especially if your ex-partner is particularly difficult.  It’s hard not to second guess yourself and to wonder whether, in this or that situation, you have a leg to stand on. You may not have a sense, either, of what a court would do and, in any case, is may not...

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The dangers of separation under the same roof

For most people, there is a period of time between separation and divorce where the soon-to-be divorcing parties live together under the same roof, often with their children.  This is not so much a desirable situation – in fact, I think you could easily argue that it is anything BUT desirable – but it is...

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Single moms are always under a lot of pressure.  For one thing, life – and parenting – is hard.  For another, they’re constantly subject to the judgment of others. One way I see this play out – unfairly, in my opinion – to the detriment of mothers and children is in how other people like...

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I’m military. Can I even file my own divorce?

  In some ways, a divorce is a divorce.  Certainly, if we’re looking at things procedurally, one divorce doesn’t differ all that much from another, though there’s also no question that a military divorce involves considerations that civilian divorces don’t. Mostly, military divorces mean that there are categories of assets – BAH, SBP, TSP, the...

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What can I ask for in my Virginia divorce?

Just because you want a divorce doesn’t necessarily mean that you really know what you are entitled to receive – or, even more than that, what it might look like after the ink is dry on your final divorce decree.  Hey, that’s okay! You’ve probably never been in this position before and, heck, even if...

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Does Virginia recognize common law marriage?

I used to get lots of questions about common law marriage.  Lately, well, not so much – until the other day.  A woman asked me what, in my opinion, was a very perceptive question about whether marriage is designed to be a safeguard to protect spouses (and, in particular, lesser earning spouses). Most of the...

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All About Relocation

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...

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