When tensions start to escalate, and it looks like you might be headed towards a divorce or custody case, it’s tempting to want to use whatever methods are available to you to gather the evidence you might need – up to and including recording conversations. But what’s legal varies pretty dramatically from state to state,...
Can I record a conversation in Virginia?
There are just some conversations that are difficult to have, and this one is a good example. I talk about divorce every single day, and, somehow, that never really gets to me. I have a fundamental belief that there’s no reason to stay in an unsuccessful, unhappy, unfulfilling, and/or abusive marriage. That, for me,...
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...
I was reading a quote the other day that said that the best thing you can do for a narcissist is to give him a child. That was it – that was the end of the quote – but it really did get me thinking. It probably is the best thing you can do, because...
Divorce – or separation, or just a breakup – is a period of time that, for many people, comes with a change of address. Whether you’re actually divorcing your former partner or whether you’ve broken up but share children in common, its pretty normal for you to go to a ‘live-in’ situation to an...
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...
Historically, divorce has been a bit of taboo. Henry VIII’s legacy notwithstanding, even the British royal family has had its own issues with its various brushes with divorce. In fact, Princess Margaret was the first to divorce in the immediate royal family – in 1978 – since Henry VIII, when he divorced Anne of Cleves...