Custody cases are tricky. Like divorce, custody is one of those areas of law that varies pretty dramatically from state to state. There’s not a lot of standardization from place to place. Though almost all states have some iteration of the “best interests of the child” factors (here are Virginia’s ten best interests of the...
Special Issues in Virginia Child Custody Cases
It happens semi regularly that we end up with a client who has moved with her child (or children) to another state over dad’s objection. If dad doesn’t care, it’s not a really big deal. If he does, though, and he files an emergency petition for custody, you could find yourself up the proverbial creek...
Relocation cases are some of the most difficult custody cases to win – in Virginia at least. And, probably, they come up in Virginia with more frequency than they do in some other places because we’ve got such a disproportionately high number of military service members. I get it, of course. What worked when you...
If you’re feeling unsafe, it’s only natural to want to run away—particularly if the very person who is making you feel unsafe is your child’s father. In my career, I’ve heard some pretty awful horror stories about the situations that have made my clients feel like they have no choice other than to flee. Usually,...
Most of the time, child support is easy peasy. It’s based on a formula, so, basically, we just fill in the blanks and the number pops up. Of course, if yours is a shared custody situation, it can be a little more complicated than in a traditional primary physical custody type situation. How so? Well,...