You can’t get very far down the road in a custody and visitation case without coming up against “best interests of the child”. There’s a version of the best interests factors in almost every state (at least, as far as I’m aware), and these factors make up the basis of how custody and visitation cases...
What Does Best Interests Of The Child Mean?
If you and your child’s father are no longer together, it makes sense that, sooner or later, one or both of you will find someone else. And it probably goes without saying that your someone else comes with his own baggage as well. Blending families – and making it work – is a complicated contention...
On Friday, we talked about relocation when you’re a military spouse. (Spoiler alert: it’s tough!) Today, we’re going to talk about the other side of the coin – what happens in a Virginia custody case when HE relocates because of a permanent change of duty station? For the active duty military parent, relocation is a...
We’ve talked about relocation cases in Virginia generally, and how difficult it is to “win” a relocation case in Virginia. It comes up all the time, as you can probably imagine, but it comes up especially often in military divorce cases. When it comes to relocation, the stakes are always particularly high because suddenly custody...
“Control” is a common theme in divorce and custody cases. The truth is, though, that if you and your soon to be ex husband have children in common, there are often a lot of strings attached, though you may be surprised to find that it’s not your husband pulling the strings – it’s the court....
Over time, the law changes and evolves. I see trends – even just in the 8 or so years that I’ve been practicing – come and go. It’s funny how that can happen, but, in custody cases, so much is left up to the judge’s discretion. These things really can be different year over year,...
Virginia relocation cases are always among the hardest. Though I understand why they come up so frequently (especially in an area that has such a high concentration of military families), I can also understand why the courts are so hesitant to allow one parent to relocate with the child. Like most other things, there are...
If you’ve found your way to this page, you probably already know that, in most jurisdictions, it can take several months to get a hearing schedule on custody and visitation petitions with a juvenile court. In Chesapeake, for example, it takes 90 days for the court to review the petitions, and usually another 90 to...