If your divorce or custody case is coming up soon and you’re in Virginia, it’s not a bad idea to consider going to court to watch a case in action – maybe even a case run by the judge who’ll be presiding over your case, if you know who that will be already. But –...
Can I just go watch a court hearing in Virginia?
I’m married – and I’m a divorce attorney. It’s a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it? Or is it? I don’t even know anymore. I’m also a pretty connected, online person, so I hear all the chatter (I try to make sure I hear all the chatter) about staying single, getting or staying married, and...
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...
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...
A GAL is a Guardian ad litem. A Guardian ad litem is an attorney appointed by the court to represent a person who, legally at least, is considered unable to represent themselves. In Virginia, we see GALs appointed in a couple of different scenarios – in cases where a party is incarcerated or where they...
A protective mom is one who take action, particularly in a child custody case, to protect her child from harm. Though protective moms are sometimes reviled in the media as helicopter moms, unnecessarily over-protective women who interfere in their children’s lives, in the custody context they are often the only ones speaking out about the...
There are all sorts of different words that attorneys, judges, Guardians ad litem, divorce coaches, and others in the family law space use to describe the tools that we utilize in divorce and custody cases. A ‘parenting plan’ is a good example, because it’s one you hear over and over, but it’s also one that...