Most of the time, adoption isn’t a big part of what we do. In some cases, though, it can come up in certain ways. Most of the time, the question is whether a new stepparent can adopt a child from a previous relationship. There are all sorts of interrelated issues: termination of parental rights, stepparent...
Special Issues in Custody: Adoption
Well, it’s officially November, which means that the holidays are literally right around the corner. For most people, it’s a pretty joyful, exciting time – looking forward to some extra time off of work, watching the Thanksgiving Day parade in your pajamas, enjoying Christmas breakfast with the extended fam, avoiding that annual family drama or...
On Friday, we talked about custody and visitation cases where a grandparent – or other non parent – petitions the court for custody and/or visitation. The cases I described on Friday are otherwise normal custody cases, where mom and dad share custody and visitation of the minor children in question. In those cases, grandparents (or...
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that children are wonderful. Well, unless they’re terrible, because sometimes that happens, too. But, regardless of how terrible they might be on any particular day, they’re certainly loveable, and they wiggle their way into our hearts – and the hearts of lots of other people that they come into contact...
Breastfeeding can become an issue in custody and visitation cases, as you can probably imagine. Breastfeeding in general is fairly controversial, but it may be safe to say that it’s at its most controversial when it comes to custody and visitation. Sure, some people get pretty bent out of shape when breasts are used for...
It’s not the first time I’ve written about JAG attorneys, and it probably won’t be the last, especially given that these same issues keep popping up time and time again in my practice. I’ve said it before: JAG attorneys are usually not licensed in the state in which they are stationed. If you’re military (which...
I hate these cases. Really, really hate them. I see moms with some frequency who come in and tell me that they were trying not to make any future issues with custody and visitation, but that their child asked them to intervene for one reason or another. Usually, these children are older teenagers (15+) and...
On Monday, we started talking about child support, and how it’s calculated. It’s actually pretty straightforward, though the child support guideline figures can vary dramatically, which makes it a refreshing area of law. We ran the guidelines a bunch of different ways, using the same income figures, to show you the difference between one and...