It happens all the time. He just wants to be a dad, he says, so he asks for 50/50 – only for you to find out that his version of 50/50 means that he puts the kids in childcare, tries to lump this cost into the child support guideline, and doesn’t care that you are...
What happens when he wants 50/50 custody just to leave the kids in daycare?
In general, custody and visitation for grandparents and other non-parent third parties (aunts, uncles, family friends, stepparents, etc.) is pretty well established. Though they can petition the court for custody and visitation, they have to meet a different standard than parents. Between two biological or adoptive parents, the standard is the best interests of the...
Social media is a way of life for most people anymore, so it’s really no wonder that a lot of details about a lot of people’s divorce and child custody cases wind up online. On the one hand, I get it. I am a millennial and I vividly remember signing up for a Facebook account...
Even though I am well and truly sick and tired of “groundbreaking” family law legislation being named after kids who were murdered in contested custody cases, the Alec and Lydia Act – recently passed in the state of Arizona – is, I hope, the beginning of a new era. Though I am not licensed in...
Adultery, sodomy, and buggery are – at least for now – grounds for fault-based divorce in Virginia. There are a number of other, alternative fault-based grounds, including cruelty, apprehension of bodily hurt, desertion, abandonment, and felony conviction, but adultery has always been sort of in its own category because it is also a crime (a...
On July 1, 2026, the law is changing. To be fair, almost every single year on July 1, the law changes in some way and, usually, there is some impact to family law. Sometimes, the effect is negligible – like, last year, when guideline child support was raised. Don’t get me wrong. We celebrated. But...
The laws are changing beginning July 1 – so, though my answer to this question up until now would have been one thing, now it is different. Let’s talk about it! In Virginia, we have both fault and no fault divorce. (At least for now – the Virginia Family Law Coalition is looking into this...
In the last several years, there have been some major changes to Virginia family law. Just last year, in 2025, guideline child support amounts were raised. This year, in 2026, the two major changes for family law are (1) that post-separation adultery is no longer recognized as a cause of action and (2) that, even...