The short answer is yes – you can choose to give your child your last name at birth. The longer answer, of course, is that this can be complicated. For unmarried mothers, particularly ones who exclude their child’s father from the birth, this is easier. We don’t necessarily assume that a child should be given...
Can I give my child my last name – and not dad’s?
Relocation is one of the trickiest areas of child custody litigation in part because there are no hard and fast answers. Whether you and your child’s father were married and are not separated and/or divorcing, or whether you were unmarried but share children in common, you will find that your ability to move wherever you...
For the most part, if you have a well-drafted separation agreement or even a very basic court order, you should be clear on what, exactly, needs to happen to wrap everything up with a nice little bow on top once your divorce is finalized. Sometimes, though, that is not the case – whether because of...
The good news is that litigated family law cases constitute the vast minority of cases. No matter what the stakes, most cases ultimately settle for a number of reasons but chief among them are these: (1) no one can afford long-term litigation, (2) litigating doesn’t yield better results, and (3) going to court takes longer....
Going to court is – by almost any metric – the nuclear option in a family law case. Literally everyone is scared of it and almost anyone would try to avoid it if there was any way at all. Usually, though not always, it’s possible to negotiate outside of court. In fact, most family law...
A major misconception about annulments is that they’re easily granted when the marriage has only lasted a short period of time. A marriage of a few hours – or even a few weeks or months – doesn’t necessarily qualify for an annulment. By contrast, even, a longer term marriage could, potentially, qualify for an annulment...
Attorneys everywhere are governed by strict rules of ethics. Though it varies a bit from state to state, one thing is pretty constant: if we have a consultation with one party to a divorce action, we can’t then meet with (or be retained by) the other party. So, if you wanted to be aggressive about...
There are only two ways to resolve a divorce or custody case: either the parties negotiate an agreement, or they go to court and litigate. This is true no matter what the issues are, but there is a sort of third, hybrid option, which includes the possibility of a “reservation” with respect to a certain...