The other day, I got a family law question I had never gotten before. “Can I ask you about my parent’s divorce?” it read. I had commented on a local moms group, identified myself as a lawyer (hopefully not in an obnoxious, know-it-all kind of way), and this was one of the comments. “Yes,” I...
Advice from a Family Lawyer to a Child of Divorce
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...
Because of the tie to child support, it’s pretty common that dads will ask for more parenting time than they intend to exercise. Sometimes, they just won’t show up at all. In other cases, though, they’ll take their parenting time, only to ask someone else (usually, their mother or a new girlfriend) to watch the...
In most cases, both parents will have the opportunity to have uninterrupted, unsupervised parenting time with their minor children, whether by agreement between the parties or by court order. In extreme cases, though, it is possible that the court would order one party or the other to have supervised visitation. This will usually be in...
There are many different ways that your child’s other parent can try to push the envelope by making you responsible for things that, really, you shouldn’t be solely responsible for if they’re an active and responsible coparent. Extracurriculars are often one of those things. But how do you know if your question is one that...
There are a few issues that seem to pop up again and again and, if you’ve been in family law as long as I have, you’re bound to see it. If you’re going through a divorce or custody case, you may very well come across it, too – which is why I write today. It...
It might not seem possible, but, under the law, a parent can kidnap his or her own child. It’s not common – in fact, it’s actually quite rare – but its something that can and does happen, and that you should be aware of. Parental kidnapping happens when a parent takes a child in...
Like entirely too many things in life, there’s no rule book for how to handle certain things after divorce. Before I go too far, allow me to say one thing. Actually, I’m going to give it a header tag, so that it’s bigger than the rest of the text, and so that it really...