Separate, Reconcile, or Divorce?

Separate, Reconcile, or Divorce?

Relationships are complicated. I’m sure you already know that. But it does bear mentioning, in any case, because it gets to the root of what we do here. Sometimes, it seems as though it doesn’t make any sense, least of all to us, who know one party only a little and the other not at...

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Do I need a Virginia family law attorney if…

  It’s probably no secret to you that an attorney isn’t necessary in absolutely every case ever. In some cases, there’s really no need to hire an attorney – as I was reminded yesterday in a conversation that I had with a really sweet prospective client. The thing is, though, that it’s really hard to...

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I needed a little bit of time to process the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard verdict. And then, after I processed, I needed a little distance, because I just found the whole entire thing so completely upsetting. In the wake of the trial, I’ve read article after article about how the case duped America, how we should...

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Can I record a conversation in Virginia?

When tensions start to escalate, and it looks like you might be headed towards a divorce or custody case, it’s tempting to want to use whatever methods are available to you to gather the evidence you might need – up to and including recording conversations. But what’s legal varies pretty dramatically from state to state,...

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Credit Card Debt and Virginia Divorce

  Debt is challenging under the best of circumstances, but when you’re considering a legal separation or a divorce, it can be a particularly challenging extra layer of complication. On its face, dividing debt is the same as dividing assets – in most cases, we look to the source of the debt, classify it as...

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In the law, we like to use terms that other people don’t understand. “Manifest injustice,” “best interests of the child,” “continued cohabitation in a relationship analogous to marriage,” “material change of circumstances,” on and on, ad nauseum. Oh, right – and the Latin! Pendente lite, habeas corpus, pro bono, a mensa et thoro, ad litem,...

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One of the things that I find the most interesting about suicide, and the people who either commit it or don’t, is that it’s often a question of opportunity. For someone like, say, Sylvia Plath, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning after sticking her head in the oven, it was an opportunity. In that time,...

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Trauma Responses to Divorce and Custody Cases

Divorce is a trauma. It’s a trauma for you, and, in many cases, it’s a trauma for your children, too. But, then again, probably many of the events leading up to your divorce and/or custody case were pretty traumatic, too. It’s not like you just showed up at a divorce attorney’s office unscathed, and suddenly...

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