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...
Do I have to tell my child’s father my address?
A few months ago, I followed the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard defamation case pretty closely. In a lot of ways, to me, it represents the core of what I do at work, and what I’ve come, personally, to care a lot about. In general, we don’t put much faith in the things that women say. You’d...
There is nothing quite as difficult as determining custody and visitation. As a mother myself, I can completely understand. When you’ve never had to divide your time with your children; when there never was ‘his’ time and ‘her’ time before, grappling with this new kind of divide can be incredibly difficult. How do you...
In a divorce, a lot of things are set in stone – regardless of whether the case is finalized by a signed separation agreement negotiated by the parties, or whether the case goes all the way to trial and the judge issues a final order. Things in equitable distribution, like the division of the retirement...
Once you (and your spouse) have made the decision to divorce, you start to worry. How long is it going to take? How much is it going to cost? Will I have enough money to survive on after this is all done? In most cases, the tensions escalate before they deescalate, and there’s a...
This was a new one for me – “I shouldn’t have to pay for a family law attorney; I’m innocent!” While I do sympathize with the sentiment, there’s also a whole lot wrong with it. In a lot of ways, I know that the way the Virginia court system – and, probably, every court...
It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally a woman tells me that she doesn’t ‘need’ child support. It’s an interesting comment, and one that I feel kind of confused by. What do you mean – you don’t need it? Child support, after all, is not designed for the comfort of the parent receiving it; it’s...
What’s right for one person isn’t necessarily the perfect fit for someone else. That goes with shoes – just ask Cinderella – and it also goes for divorce attorneys. I mean, really, I think the same is true across many different things in life, but I do think it’s particularly true when it comes...