Are you separated – and headed towards divorce – or just separated and ultimately hoping to reconcile? Sometimes it’s clear. Other times, though, it’s anything but. In any case, whatever you’re hoping for in the long term, you probably have a lot of questions about what to expect and what you should be doing. That’s...
Advice for Recently Separated Women
You can get a court order establishing child support in one of two ways. One: You can file a petition with the juvenile court for custody, visitation, and/or child support, go to court, and ask the court to establish child support (as well as, potentially, custody and visitation). This can be either an initial...
From the beginning, let me be clear: in Virginia, there is no law requiring that custody start out at 50/50. Though that is the law in some states, that is not the law here. Here, the law is that the judge has to consider all forms of custody – primary, shared, and split physical custody...
One of the most difficult parts of child custody litigation is that it can be virtually never ending. Since custody, visitation, and child support are modifiable based on a material change in circumstances, you can – theoretically, at least – find yourself in court again and again, at least until you children turn 18 and...
Mediation can be a cost effective way to resolve issues without having to go to court, but it’s still nice to be able to choose whether (or not) to participate in any mediated processes. For one thing, mediators vary wildly – some are attorneys though most are not; some have familiarity with difficult personalities and...
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...
Custody and visitation can be sort of a tricky subject and, if you look on the internet or poll friends on social media, you can get a wide range of (not necessarily correct) answers. It’s always wise to at least talk to an attorney when you have legal questions, rather than relying on (well-meaning) non-attorneys,...
Not everyone can afford to hire an attorney but, when it comes to a divorce or custody case, almost everyone needs at least some legal advice. There are very few options when it comes to complete and total pro bono representation, too, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t opportunities to get your questions asked...