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...
Birth Certificate and Virginia Child Custody
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. ...
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...
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...
You’ve been married a long time – at least 20 years – and your partner is in the military. How do you know if you qualify as one of the elusive 20/20/20 spouses? Goodness knows you can’t ask your husband, a JAG attorney, or really anyone associated with the military! What is a 20/20/20 spouse?...
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...
You’ve been married a really long time. At this point, probably almost every asset (or liability) you can think of is one that was earned, purchased, or acquired during the marriage. While it doesn’t have to be harder to end a longer marriage as opposed to a shorter one, there are often a lot...
By any reckoning, 15 years is a fairly lengthy marriage. At some point – and I’d theorize that’s somewhere along the ten year mark – there comes a time when, even if you break up, you and your soon-to-be ex owe something to each other. The longer the marriage, the more difficult it is to...