In Virginia, there is no requirement that you hire an attorney to represent you in a divorce or custody case, whether at the juvenile or circuit court level (or even beyond, if your case merits an appeal). If you choose not to hire an attorney, you represent yourself. We call people who represent themselves pro...
How do I know if I need a VA family law attorney?
If you’re a woman in the military and you’re getting a divorce, you’re not alone. Though the reverse dynamic – a man as the active duty military service member and a woman as the dependent spouse – is more common, that doesn’t mean that the reverse doesn’t also occur. Plenty of women are active duty...
When you hire an attorney, you probably want to know that the attorney you’ve hired (or are considering hiring) has experience with cases similar to yours. This is especially true for military spouses. In some ways, I find it a little silly, to be honest. After all, a divorce is a divorce, and, in Virginia,...
One of the biggest assets that we divide in divorce are retirement accounts. Whether we’re talking about IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, pensions, stock options, TSPs, or any other type of account, if they were earned during the marriage, they’re marital property and subject to division in any action for divorce. Retirement is actually (usually!) an easy...
Military retirement is changing, and gone are the days where we could determine what a person’s total retirement benefit would be if we knew a few things, like rank, years of service, and base pay. Beginning in January 2019, new military service members who join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, or...