I’m lonely. Will dating impact my child support?

We talked the other day about how dating might impact an award of spousal support.  I had originally intended to write about both child and spousal support in the same article, but it just ended up being too complicated, so I split into the two articles.  You can check out the spousal support article here....

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Up until the court formally decides custody and visitation – or, alternatively, the parties enter into a signed custody agreement – there’s no formal child custody, visitation, or child support. For many couples, especially the ones that stay together (regardless of whether they’re married), that’s enough and it doesn’t go further than that.  Even for...

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Birth Certificate and Virginia Child Custody

After I had my babies, I remember being shocked at how quickly personnel from the hospital came by to make sure that I had arranged to pay my bill, that I knew it wasn’t wise to shake a baby, and to fill out the information needed to complete the birth certificate. I never saw a...

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I really need an aggressive family law attorney

  Everyone wants an aggressive attorney.  A pit bull.  A shark.  Those are the terms I hear the most often.  “Someone who’ll fight for me,” they say. I get it!  Obviously, when you hire an attorney, you want to feel like that person is cool and confident, and will have your back in any situation. ...

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Even if you’ve been unhappy for a really long time, it’s sometimes hard to put a label on your relationship, especially if that label is “abusive.” Its kind of like rape.  We all understand what it is, but, at the end of the day, often have a hard time describing our own experiences in these...

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What kind of parenting plan do judges like?

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding our local area judges, and that’s probably especially true in the juvenile court. In case you’re not yet all that familiar with the Virginia court system, most custody cases start in juvenile court – unless they’re part of a larger divorce action (in which case they’d be filed in...

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Custody and Visitation of Grown Children

As you’re probably more or less already aware, custody and visitation of children – whether as a standalone custody case or part of an underlying divorce action – really only deals with minor children.  In Virginia, child support ends when a child turns 19 or graduates from high school, whichever occurs first, and you lose...

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The internet is a dangerous place.  It’s a place where its difficult to tell an expert from a novice, and where each freely, generously, and emphatically give their own opinions.  Sometimes, the two coexist side by side, and it can be hard to determine which is correct. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve...

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