Navigating a new coparenting relationship is challenging, even under the best of circumstances. Most breakups, though, aren’t the best of circumstances. Or maybe – and this is entirely possible – I just have a poor sampling. I do think that’s something you (and probably I) should always consider. When I speak (or write), I’m thinking...
Will a parenting app help our communication?
There are a few issues that seem to pop up again and again and, if you’ve been in family law as long as I have, you’re bound to see it. If you’re going through a divorce or custody case, you may very well come across it, too – which is why I write today. It...
Family law – which includes divorce, child custody, visitation, child support, and spousal support – is a particular area of law that is incredibly state-specific. What you find to be true in one state is not necessarily true in another. Even states that are nearby – like, for example, North Carolina and Virginia – are...
There are a million different issues that come up in coparenting. One of them – or, at least, one of the ones I hear about the most often – is gatekeeping. As a mom myself, I can completely relate. All of the information coming at you about the kids at all times can feel insane. ...
As much as I’ve written about child support over the years, I think there are still a lot of things that people don’t understand about how it works. Custodial arrangements – or parenting plans – vary dramatically these days, and though it’s true to say that more parents share custody than have primary physical...
Parenting Plans and Parenting Time These days, its probably safe to say that shared custody is more the norm than primary physical custody, except in cases where the parties agree otherwise. There is no explicit, legal presumption for shared custody in Virginia, though; in fact, the law only provides that the judge should consider “all”...
They say that marriages fall apart in increments of 7 – 7 years, 14 years, 21 years, and so on. It’s where the whole “Seven Year Itch” thing came from. In a lot of ways, I see it. Even though the first year of marriage is sometimes tumultuous, people tend to settle into a groove...
Marriage doesn’t always last forever, and that’s okay. In fact, I generally think that, the shorter the marriage, the easier the divorce, mostly because there’s not often THAT much to divide. Life changing money usually isn’t made in just a few years, which means the stakes are generally correspondingly smaller. Why is that good? It...