The general wisdom seems to be that, if you bring property into a marriage, you should protect it with a prenuptial agreement – or, even, by not getting married at all. I can’t tell you how many times someone has told me this. That’s why it’s always a very good idea to talk to an...
Pre-Marital Property in Virginia
I’m always surprised at just how many people maintain separate bank accounts throughout the entirety of their marriage. Though I definitely understand the desire to keep things separate – and maybe to share expenses in a mutually owned household account – I do think that it often causes confusion about what is marital property...
Spousal support is one of the trickier areas of law. For one thing, husbands don’t want to pay it. A few years back, the law was changed so that spousal support is no longer tax deductible. Though that sounds like a good thing – who doesn’t love money that the IRS isn’t counting towards your...
In most cases, my clients have been with their husband for a number of years, accumulating a number of possessions – both consequential and inconsequential. Though we don’t often spend much time dividing the sheets and bath towels, other things, especially big ticket items like houses and cars, do occupy a fair amount of time...
Coming from a family that owns a local business and now working for another small family-owned business, it’s pretty safe to say that businesses are something that I think about a lot. You might even be surprised at how often it comes up, but there are lots and lots of different types of businesses that...
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about divorce and the divorce process in Virginia. When it comes to property division, there’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. I like to think that a big part of my job is just providing education, so that women know what to expect and at least how...
After the market crashed in 2008, we handled a lot of cases where there was more debt than anything else. It was terrible. Houses were underwater, and I’ve never seen such high credit card debt. In fact, at that point, it seemed like a lot of people decided to stay together because they really couldn’t...
If you have more debts than assets and you feel like you’re drowning, it may be that divorce shouldn’t be your first thought. Let’s break it down a little bit. Because, of course, financially, divorce CAN help, especially if there are some issues (like his general extravagance) that you want to get out from under....