Family law cases can be a little more confusing than cases in other areas of law because – depending on the type of case – you might find yourself in either circuit court or juvenile court. Though some states call juvenile court ‘family court,’ and I’ve found that’s the way a lot of people refer...
Can I have my family law case heard in the family court?
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...
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...
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...
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...
There are very few things as anxiety-inducing as having to go to court, but this is especially true in the case of an emergency motion. In Virginia, one party can file and ask for a hearing to be held on an emergency basis; it is up to the court to either grant or dismiss that...
Virginia is restrictive when it comes to divorce, just because of the waiting period required before you can even file for a no fault divorce. Here in the Commonwealth, you have to be separated for ONE year before you can finalize a divorce using the fault based grounds of cruelty, apprehension of bodily hurt,...
Custody cases are some of the most dramatic, contentious, and stressful cases. I’ve written on this before, and I’ll say it again: Virginia is NOT one of the states in this country that mandates 50/50 custody as a starting point. In Virginia, we use the ‘best interests of the child’ factors, established by statute, as...