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...
Parent Withholding Information – Issues in Virginia Child Custody
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...
If your first custody court date is coming up, you’re probably a barrel full of nerves. If you’re anything like me, whenever anything stressful is approaching, you get that “can’t eat, can’t sleep” feeling. When it relates to your children, that feeling is probably amplified by, like, a million – and, especially since we’re dealing...
Custody cases are tricky. Like divorce, custody is one of those areas of law that varies pretty dramatically from state to state. There’s not a lot of standardization from place to place. Though almost all states have some iteration of the “best interests of the child” factors (here are Virginia’s ten best interests of the...
Custody cases are messy, and sometimes it really starts to feel like anything goes. Allegations fly back and forth, and it quickly becomes a battle of he said/she said. Parents understand, usually, that it’ll be difficult for a judge or a guardian ad litem to really get to the meat of the case because there...
Custody cases are some of the most complicated that we see. The court views a divorce case as predominantly a business transaction. Though you may get laughed at if you say that it’s about “fairness”, there is a fair amount of consideration that goes into the equity of a particular way of dissolving the marriage....
Whether you or your child’s father originally filed custody petitions, it’s a pretty scary process. If he has an attorney and you don’t, it’s probably especially scary. Though there’s no rule that says you have to have an attorney in any divorce or custody cases in Virginia, navigating the system on your own can be...