A Cheap Divorce is possible! In litigation, one of you must legally sue the other in court to obtain a divorce. In doing so, you become adversaries.  When a couple is heading toward divorce, this adversarial relationship often makes things even worse.  Mediation is a process that attempts to remove your dispute from the adversarial [...]

What Does a Child’s Attorney Do? Custody cases have an element not shared by other court cases…children.  Unless a skilled children’s attorney is appointed in high conflict cases, the children’s issues and needs can be swept aside by a heated dispute. Everyone has their own opinion as to the appropriate role of an attorney for [...]

Childhood bullying can have lifelong consequences. Listen to your child’s concerns.  Then help your child create a plan to stop bullying in its tracks. Bullying was once considered a childhood rite of passage.  Today, however, bullying is recognized as a serious problem.  Up to half of all children are bullied at some point during their [...]

Should a parent bring a child to the court house? There are two primary lines of thought. The first group of people does not believe children benefit in any way from seeing the inside of a court house.  They believe a therapeutic setting is the best way to assist a child in sorting through the [...]

A cheap divorce is also about protecting the children’s best interests after divorce. To keep a cheap divorce, it is also important to think and act in the best interests of your children after a divorce: •    Make child support payments in full and on time. The children count on it for their needs and [...]

Be prepared for mediation The following will probably be needed to draft your legal paperwork; bringing them to your first mediation session may save you time later: Real estate documents. If either of you owns a home or other real property, bring a document that gives a legal description of the property and any notes [...]

Teenagers that are out of Control I was approached the other day by a mother who has “custody” of her 15 year old son.  The child is out of control and is physically frightening and intimidating to mom.  Even though mom is technically the custodial parent, son lives with dad right now.  Dad is, however, [...]

Regardless of the length of the marriage, retirement benefits should be discussed and settled in every divorce case.  For example, the petition, marital settlement agreement and judgment should all provide either for the spouse’s waiver of retirement benefits or the division of any such benefits. A spouse should waive retirement benefits only if that spouse’s [...]

What do children need from their parents during divorce? •    They need both parents to stay involved in their lives. Please write your children letters, make phone calls, and ask your children lots of questions. When you don’t stay involved, children feel like they’re not important and that they don’t really matter to you. •    [...]

Cheap Divorce is possible through negotiations We took a call from a distraught client “I told my lawyer that my wife and I were pretty much in agreement about everything, that we didn’t want to fight and I didn’t see any reason to go to war over everything. We just needed a lawyer to draft [...]