Helping our neighbors plan for their family’s future and avoid painful issues.
Going through a separation is confusing, stressful, and often overwhelming. Estate planning is not a subject that comes up frequently. Very often, as couples make the decision to get separated and then divorced, they are concerned with the most pressing things: making sure the children are cared for, paying the bills on time, deciding who will live where. There are a lot of moving parts to coordinate, not to mention Read More
Since 1990, Maryland courts have been required to use Child Support Guidelines in all cases involving children. These guidelines suggest a certain amount that should be paid to meet the cost of raising the children of the divorced parents. Let’s explore these factors: Both parents' actual monthly income To determine how much child support should be paid, the court must first evaluate each parent's Read More
After a divorce is finalized, you will have several orders in place that must be followed for a set period of time. In most cases, these orders will be in place for several years at the least, and in some situations, are actually meant to last for life. The courts understand, however, that people’s situations change and it is sometimes necessary to have a post-judgment modification made. The following are four common Read More
Going through a divorce is said to be among the most painful experiences that a person can go through. Once the divorce is finalized, many people find that they don’t experience the immediate relief and happiness that they were expecting. The fact is, the end of a divorce is really just the beginning of your recovery and rediscovery period in your life. If you are looking for some effective ways to help see that Read More
Getting a divorce is never easy, but whenever possible, it is best to do everything possible to get through it with as few fights as you can. For many people, keeping the divorce process out of the courts is an ideal solution. This is made possible by using the mediation process rather than litigating in front of a judge. While mediation won’t work in every case, it is always best to give it a try if you want to Read More
When going through a divorce, one of the hardest things to do is come to an agreement on who gets what in terms of the marital assets. Even in otherwise civil cases, couples often can’t come to a mutual agreement about how their assets will be distributed and it ends up having to go to court to have a judge decide. While this should be avoided when possible, it is good to know what standards the judge will use should Read More
The other day I got a call in the office and the caller asked me just that question: "Do you advocate for father's rights?" My response was "I advocate for parent's rights". CLICK! I can't say I was surprised that the caller hung up on me. When you ask a question like that it signals that you believe there is an unjust tilting of the judicial process in favor of women. That perception, spoken with absolute Read More
A couple of weeks ago there was a story about a woman in California who came forward as the winner of the SuperLotto Plus Jackpot prize of $23 million just days before the winning ticket was about to expire. Apparently she never checked the ticket and had simply left it in her car. Luckily for her, her daughter recognized her mother's picture from a surveillance camera and alerted her to her winnings. Why hadn't she Read More
One of the most difficult issues to understand in a divorce action is the concept of marital property. Lawyers spend entire seminars, read full treatises, and examine statutes for hours on end to try and understand the nuances of this concept. So it is not surprising that most non-lawyers struggle with the same problem. Most people seem to think that each gets half of all the "stuff". It's not that Read More
The settlement of the NFL referee lockout generated a sigh of relief throughout the country yesterday as the league and the referee's union announced an agreement that put an end to the lockout. The workplace dispute resulted in three weeks of disarray, erroneous results, and a real economic impact the the league and it's followers. The sad part is that the deal that was agreed to was available before the start of Read More
