In Virginia, when you file for child custody, you also often file for visitation and child support. These petitions go hand in hand for a number of reasons, but probably the biggest one is that, if you don’t ask for something, the court doesn’t have the power to award it. So many things in law...
Parenting Time v. Visitation
There are few things in a family law context that drive extreme emotion quite like adultery and child custody. When you combine the two, it’s a recipe for volatility. But … does it matter? It’s an excellent question and one definitely worth discussing. Let’s get into it. If your soon-to-be ex-husband (or ex boyfriend) cheated...
Coming up with a parenting plan isn’t just about how you’ll share the days in each week, though it is certainly about how you’ll share the days in the week. To make matters even more complicated, there are many other considerations that should be reflected in your parenting plan, and you’ll want to make sure...
If you’ve never been through it before, it’s hard to know what to ask for when it comes to custody and visitation. Probably you realize that your soon-to-be ex (husband, boyfriend, partner – whatever the label) will have at least some parenting time. But what will that look like? How can it be structured? What...
A GAL is a Guardian ad litem. A Guardian ad litem is an attorney appointed by the court to represent a person who, legally at least, is considered unable to represent themselves. In Virginia, we see GALs appointed in a couple of different scenarios – in cases where a party is incarcerated or where they...
Question: My child’s father and I separated and he stayed in the marital home. Our kids go back and forth. This week, my daughter came back to my new place after spending a weekend at dad’s. She cried and told me that dad had taken down all of our family photos. She was really upset...
A protective mom is one who take action, particularly in a child custody case, to protect her child from harm. Though protective moms are sometimes reviled in the media as helicopter moms, unnecessarily over-protective women who interfere in their children’s lives, in the custody context they are often the only ones speaking out about the...
The short answer is yes – you can choose to give your child your last name at birth. The longer answer, of course, is that this can be complicated. For unmarried mothers, particularly ones who exclude their child’s father from the birth, this is easier. We don’t necessarily assume that a child should be given...