Part One Under Virginia law (well, under the law in every state, as far as I’m aware), both parents have an obligation to support their children. For many people, it’s a non issue – parents who are together tend to share expenses and mutually care for the children. For parents who are separated, divorced, or...
A Guide to Child Support for Virginia Moms: Part One
As you probably are already aware, once you have a child with someone, they never really go away. In a divorce or a breakup where there are no children, the parties are free to go their own separate ways and never see each other again. It’s not only desirable but encouraged. There’s no reason for...
Temporary Agreements are complicated issues in divorce and custody cases. If your husband (or child’s father) proposes one, you should proceed with extreme caution. That being said, we often use temporary agreements for all sorts of reasons. I’m working on one right now for a client who needs custody and spousal support determined on a...
Under Virginia law, you are free to elect to handle your own family law case in the Virginia courts. Depending on the complexity of your case and the issues involved, though, it may be more or less possible to do so. Family law cases cover several varieties – juvenile court cases (custody, visitation, child support,...
Daycare providers are often a hot button issue in custody cases, because daycare providers control the access to the children entrusted to their care. I don’t envy them, in a lot of cases, because they can get stuck in the middle of some pretty obnoxious and contentious issues. When there’s a custody order in place,...
Sharing custody with an ex is difficult, even under the best circumstances. No matter what, it’s hard to face the idea of splitting your child’s time – especially holidays, vacations, and other special occasions – and knowing that means you’ll have less time, possibly by as much as half. Weekends, too – obviously, these...
Joint Legal Child Custody Everybody fusses about physical custody, because that has to do with where a child spends the majority of her time. Physical custody is a big deal; in fact, it’s what we litigate on most of the time, because everybody wants some kind of specific amount of time with the child. When...
Child support is complicated. On the one hand, in many cases it isn’t an issue, because it’s based on a formula, and the formula is binding on our courts. On the other hand, it is an issue, because when you get into shared physical custody, for example, the level of support a paying parent would...