I’ve talked a lot recently about custody issues amid the coronavirus pandemic, but there are things about all this COVID-19 stuff that affects divorce, too. And that’s important, too! It’s complicated, it’s challenging, and it’s unprecedented, which means that a lot of the issues we’re facing no one has faced before. Not divorcing people, not...
How will I prove that we’ve been separated if we’re socially distancing?
Governor Northam issued a Stay at Home order for Virginia residents, effective immediately, on Monday, March 30th, 2020. I wrote last week about what would happen if a shelter in place order was issued, ironically right before Governor Northam issued his stay at home order. I’ve been reading up on these, and it probably bears...
First of all, we are thinking about all of our clients and all women and children in Virginia at this time. No matter your life circumstance – whether you have kids, whether you are elderly, or whether you are just trying to keep your job, everything right now is hard. Schools in Virginia are closed...
I hear things like this all the time. “I just need an easy uncontested divorce,” or “I need my divorce paperwork filed.” Sometimes, it even takes on a sort of insulting tone, “I just need a paper pusher to finalize this divorce.” “There are no issues,” I’m assured. “It’s just an easy divorce.” Is there...
Reason number 2390123 I am more than a little terrified of random form documents that people find on the internet… Okay, well, honestly, in this case, two reasons: (1) people put in things that are in the form agreement “because it was on the form and just thought it needed to be in there” and...
On Monday, we talked about issues that gay parents face in custody and visitation cases, with specific emphasis on couples who have always been gay. I don’t say “always” to ignite any kind of nature or nurture debate, but merely to illustrate that there are some differences between gay partners who had children together and...
A Guardian ad litem is an attorney appointed on behalf of a child in a custody case. We really don’t bring kids to court to testify; there won’t be a moment where the child has to tell the court whether he’d prefer to live with mom or dad. That just doesn’t happen. But, of course,...
I met with a woman the other day who, from the moment she sat down, told me that she had just signed whatever her husband put in front of her because she wanted to keep things amicable. They have four children in common, and parenting was – understandably – her primary concern. He told her...