Pregnancy can be wonderful, but it can also be really challenging – especially if you’re also starting to think that your marriage may not last past (or even up until) the birth. Expecting women are particularly vulnerable, especially if you’re currently unemployed, because childbirth is both personally and professionally complicated. Not only that, but caring...
Pregnant and Expecting – a Virginia Divorce
There are probably very few things as devastating as losing custody of your children. As a mother myself, I can only imagine. In my experience, this happens pretty rarely, and (I’m sorry to say) often not without reason. In the majority of cases, the parties agree about how custody and visitation will be handled between...
I’m going to be completely honest: I’ve never actually worked on a case where a nesting arrangement has worked. There, I said it. The elephant in the room has been addressed. But, that being said, I do still have a lot of people ask me about nesting and other living arrangements in custody and visitation...
This was a new one for me – “I shouldn’t have to pay for a family law attorney; I’m innocent!” While I do sympathize with the sentiment, there’s also a whole lot wrong with it. In a lot of ways, I know that the way the Virginia court system – and, probably, every court...
When it comes to raising children, we all have a million different ideas about how it should be done – and, the thing is, they can vary pretty dramatically from one person to the next, or from one family to the next. As a mother myself – and a family law lawyer dedicated to...
It’s tempting to say that you’ll give up everything you’re entitled to receive in your divorce in exchange for custody. I’m a mom myself, I can totally understand the appeal. After all, there’s literally nothing in the world more important than your children. At the root of it, too, there’s also the sense that keeping...
Getting custody and visitation in place may feel like some kind of medieval torture. Whether you’re able to agree (after a fair amount of negotiation) or whether you ultimately need a judge to render a decision, it’s rarely an easy thing to do. When things go south between you and your child’s father, well, all...
On Monday, we talked about how good moms can lose custody. It happens all the time, and I’m always surprised at how many moms don’t take custody cases seriously, and wind up losing custody of their kids. They fall prey to some of the common mistakes we discussed on Monday, and they’re left with...