In an action for divorce in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a corroborating witness is needed. It’s not enough to just grant a divorce based upon the testimony of the husband and wife; the statute requires that a third party be able to affirm the allegations of the moving party. It would be nice if...
What does a corroborating witness need to say?
Going to court is intimidating. Especially in this day in age, when it’s not only a question of facing your husband and/or child’s father, but a pretty significant COVID-19 risk. There are a lot of things about court – and contested cases – that we can’t control. But there are some things we can...
Divorce and custody cases can be expensive. In fact, they usually are. Though we have cases every so often where we propose and sign an agreement within a couple of weeks, with minimal expense to the client, there are also cases where we negotiate and litigate for months – and sometimes longer – on...
Everyone is concerned about money, especially now. But, really, in my line of business, I feel the same sense of urgency where finances are concerned regardless of whether there’s a global pandemic. Attorneys are expensive. And family law attorneys are different from other kinds of attorneys – specifically, personal injury attorneys – so some...
I often get questions about the division of work between an attorney and a paralegal. Though I may be reading more into these questions than is necessary (and though, I admit, am broadly generalizing here), the sense that I get is that most people want the work in their case to be done by their...
One of the biggest questions in any divorce and custody case is “How will I pay for it?” For almost anyone, no matter how high or low of an earner they are, it’s a bit of a stretch financially. I look at a lot of people’s various account information, so, I can tell you, almost...
I talk about adultery a lot. To be fair, it comes up a lot. As far as fault based grounds for divorce go, adultery is probably the single most common. There’s no one, single, specific path that “every” divorcing woman takes. A divorce is a journey, and it’s one that can take a LOT...
I got this question for the first time the other day – how do I prepare for an initial consultation – and I realized it’s something that I hadn’t specifically written on before. I’ve written about whether you can bring someone with you, what documents you should bring, what to expect, and so on, but...