In Virginia, you are married until you are divorced. While Virginia requires a fairly lengthy period of separation before you are legally permitted to finalize your divorce, being legally separated is not the same as being actually divorced. Separated is still married. In fact, the entire point of requiring a period of separation is so...
Adultery After Separation (But Before Divorce)
As you probably already know, not all wives are SAHMs. Goodness knows I’m not! From a divorce perspective, having access to your own income, benefits, and opportunities is so critically important. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – one of the biggest evils when it comes to divorce and child custody cases...
There’s no good way to find out that your husband has cheated on you. Even if you don’t know – you only suspect – it’s a challenging time. You are trying to reconcile something horrible with the man that you thought you knew but, also, you’re trying to plan for what comes next. Can...
A major misconception about annulments is that they’re easily granted when the marriage has only lasted a short period of time. A marriage of a few hours – or even a few weeks or months – doesn’t necessarily qualify for an annulment. By contrast, even, a longer term marriage could, potentially, qualify for an annulment...
Most of the questions that we get – at least in the early stages of a separation or divorce – is a basic one. “What should I do first?” It’s a good question, too, because I think it’s always smart to go into something knowing what to expect and having at least the outlines of...
I used to get lots of questions about common law marriage. Lately, well, not so much – until the other day. A woman asked me what, in my opinion, was a very perceptive question about whether marriage is designed to be a safeguard to protect spouses (and, in particular, lesser earning spouses). Most of the...
If there is a phrase I HATE in family law – along with calling a woman a golddigger – it’s a man referencing being taken to the cleaners. It’s rooted in such, deep, toxic internalized misogyny that it’s hard for me to believe anyone really believes it, but – then again – the world has...
I see misinformation everywhere, almost every single day. It seems like, when it comes to legal advice, almost everyone thinks they know all the answers – and they’re comfortable enough to tell other people what they should do, too. The thing is, though, that they’re often wrong. Just today I saw some divorce coach on...