Question: When my husband and I married, he owned a home. It was in his name but not paid off; we paid the mortgage together and made small improvements over time. Later, I became disabled. I took some money that I had – a little bit from an inheritance, and some from my retirement accounts...
Divorce, Home Improvement, and Disability: Question
Just because you want a divorce doesn’t necessarily mean that you really know what you are entitled to receive – or, even more than that, what it might look like after the ink is dry on your final divorce decree. Hey, that’s okay! You’ve probably never been in this position before and, heck, even if...
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...
A “Gray Divorce” is the term that is used nowadays to describe divorces where the parties are over the age of 50. You may not prefer the term – because, hey, JLo is over 50, and she’s TOTALLY not gray – but the reality is that we often lump these types of cases together...
I’ve been guilty of it, too, in the past. I’ve asked a friend, who confided in me about the misery involved in her relationship, why she stays. Why she doesn’t just go, because doesn’t she know she deserves better? These days, I try not to. Because I know it won’t help. Because I know...
In Equitable Distribution, the legal process through which we divide the assets and liabilities of a marriage between the parties, the court doesn’t automatically assume a 50/50 split. This is different than states that follow a Community Property model of division. In equitable distribution (or ED, as we sometimes call it), it’s almost like...
When I was a brand new baby lawyer, fresh out of law school, it was a few years after the 2008 real estate crash. At that time, I remember seeing a lot of people – yes, even several years later – who came in with tons of debt and houses that were underwater. At the...