In general, custody and visitation for grandparents and other non-parent third parties (aunts, uncles, family friends, stepparents, etc.) is pretty well established. Though they can petition the court for custody and visitation, they have to meet a different standard than parents. Between two biological or adoptive parents, the standard is the best interests of the...
Grandparent visitation after the death or incapacity of a bio parent
Social media is a way of life for most people anymore, so it’s really no wonder that a lot of details about a lot of people’s divorce and child custody cases wind up online. On the one hand, I get it. I am a millennial and I vividly remember signing up for a Facebook account...
On July 1, 2026, the law is changing. To be fair, almost every single year on July 1, the law changes in some way and, usually, there is some impact to family law. Sometimes, the effect is negligible – like, last year, when guideline child support was raised. Don’t get me wrong. We celebrated. But...
In the last several years, there have been some major changes to Virginia family law. Just last year, in 2025, guideline child support amounts were raised. This year, in 2026, the two major changes for family law are (1) that post-separation adultery is no longer recognized as a cause of action and (2) that, even...
Divorce from bed and board is getting all of the hype this July, but it’s not the only change that Virginia has implemented this year. In case you hadn’t heard, Virginia is no longer recognizing post separation adultery as a cause of action. Let’s discuss. Pre v. Post Separation Adultery What is adultery? Adultery...
In the wake of the murder of Cerina Fairfax, I’ve been talking a lot about the state of Virginia law – including the new updates on July 1, 2026 that allow separating couples to immediately get a “divorce” from bed and board – including separation under the same roof. There have been a number of...
Same old, same old, am I right? I know there are arguments here on both sides – moms only want custody because they want the child support and dads only want more parenting time because they want to pay less child support. But, the truth is, it’s really easy to tell who is most motivated...
In Virginia, we classify property as either marital, separate, or hybrid before we divide it in divorce and, mostly, that comes down to looking at when and how the asset was earned, purchased, or acquired. Things earned by the partners to the marriage themselves during the marriage are usually marital but other things – whether...