There are very few things as alarming as being served with legal-looking paperwork and not being sure what that means for you or how to respond. In general, though, you’re right to be concerned – not that this is the end of the world, but legal paperwork usually means that you’re going to need to...
I was served with divorce papers; what do I do now?
I know, I know. If you’re married to a narcissist – whether diagnosed or undiagnosed – you KNOW how miserable they can make life. And, if left to their own devices, they’d probably love to make divorce difficult, too. After all, if there’s one thing a narcissist (or a high conflict person or an abusive...
Once you have an appointment – like an initial consultation – with a lawyer, that lawyer cannot meet with, give advice to, or represent the opposing party. In a divorce or custody case, if a wife meets with five of the top local divorce attorneys, none of those five will be able to represent her...
Divorce is hard enough in normal circumstances, but when you don’t know where your soon-to-be ex is living, it’s even harder. You may be surprised, too, to find out how often it happens! The biggest issue associated with not knowing where he is has to do with service of process. Basically, it’s a Constitutional requirement. When...
It’s hard to transition from having custody of your child full time to sharing custody, no matter what specific allocation of time your child’s father gets. Sharing holidays is a challenge, especially when you consider that it means that there will be major holidays that you’ll spend alone. Any deviation from the standard schedule...
Though we talk a lot about division of the assets, we often spend a lot less time talking about division of debt. Even though dividing debt is always an important part of a divorce, it tends to take a backseat – not because it’s not important, but probably more because it’s a whole lot less...
In order to qualify for the benefits associated with marriage in Virginia, you’re going to need to actually walk down the aisle and get formally, legally married. Common Law marriage is a concept that has more or less fallen out of fashion and most states don’t recognize any kind of common law marriage designation. Though...
There are few hard and fast rules when it comes to separation and divorce. While many decisions that you make are going to be up to you, I would always point out that, in general, the time after a woman makes the decision to separate from her husband is potentially particularly dangerous. I don’t...