Posted on November 19, 2013 in Child Custody

Current statistics indicate that nearly 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, and unfortunately, the holidays can be an emotional and stressful time for families dealing with a fresh divorce or separation. However, during this time of change, it is important to focus on the needs of any children involved and to establish child visitation for each parent.

Willingness to compromise during the holidays may sound impossible, depending on the nature of a couple’s divorce or separation. However, one helpful idea, according to certified Marriage Educator Cathy Meyer, is agree to “shift your holiday celebration to the day before or after, allowing the child to enjoy two celebrations without having to make a choice. Parents can also alternate years for holidays, with one parent having the child on Thanksgiving Day for example, while the other parent has Christmas Day.” Once visitation is established, parents can then make the most of the time they have with their children during the holidays.

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 Posted on November 14, 2013 in Divorce

Occasionally, people decide that they need a prenuptial agreement before saying yes to marriage.  That can be to protect assets such as a home or business in the event of a divorce.  It is easy to understand a prenup if you consider it a type of contract in case the marriage ends.  The prenup will define how assets will be divided and acts as a blueprint for other aspects of divorce including spousal support.

Prenuptial agreements are appropriate for those with a large amount of assets or a small amount and are becoming more popular in the last couple of years.  However, a prenuptial agreement is not always considered valid if certain mistakes are made during the process.  In order to avoid those critical errors, it is important to understand what they are.

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 Posted on November 11, 2013 in Divorce

 Divorce is not easy on any one who is involved.  There are various studies that show the effects that divorce has on women and children.  Some women may become sad from being out of a relationship while others find a particular freedom from being out of a bad situation.  Children can be ever more devastated by a divorce.  But the effect on men was revealed in a recent study.

The study is called “The Influence of Divorce on Men’s Health” published in the Journal of Men’s Health. It was a joint study by Dr. W. David Robinson of Utah State University and Dr. Daniel S. Felix of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.   They connected the trauma of divorce with various physical ailments such as heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure.

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 Posted on November 08, 2013 in Divorce

The results of a new study indicate that divorce just may be contagious; when you're around divorcing couples, you're more likely to do the same.

The study, conducted by researchers from Brown University, Harvard University and University of California in San Diego, concluded that having a close friend or relative who is divorced can increase the chancefor a person’s own marriage breakup by 75 percent. The study also found that even knowing acquaintances that are divorced raises the risk of breakup by 33 percent.

The study was headed by Dr. Rose McDermott, a professor of political science at Brown University. According to McDermott, divorce is what she calls a “social contagion” – the news of someone’s divorce spreads quickly among family, friends, work colleagues and other social networks people have.

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 Posted on November 04, 2013 in Divorce

Divorce is one of the most difficult times that a person can go through. Though divorce is extremely common—according to the Center for Disease Control, the number of divorces and annulments has continued to increase since 2009, after slowing slightly during the Great Recession—some feel a stigma upon marital dissolution. Often, there are complicated matters to deal with, such as child custody or joint parenting. “Shared physical custody is increasingly common in divorce courts across the nation,” Parenting magazine reports. Though this can be good for children of divorce, it can be all the more difficult for divorcing parents.

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 Posted on March 26, 2013 in Divorce

George Washington once said, "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence." His advice is informed and should be heeded when entering into a high-asset divorce. Failure to do so can result in undesired consequences for the process as a whole. True, good friends and loyal family members can help you to navigate your divorce with grace and dignity. But friends and loved ones who are not quite so true can complicate your divorce proceedings and compromise your ability to obtain the settlement terms you desire.

Unfortunately, high-asset divorces sometimes bring out the worst in friends and loved ones. Those around you may be more concerned about how your divorce settlement terms will affect them than how they will affect you. They may even be inclined to act upon their concerns in ways that affect your divorce process.

For example, say that a relative is named in your joint will with your current spouse. If that relative believes that he or she will not be named in your newly single estate plan but will remain a beneficiary in your spouse's new will, that relative may actually try to influence your divorce settlement to ensure that you receive fewer assets. It is hard to believe that individuals would behave this way, but it happens more often than you would think.

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 Posted on February 28, 2013 in Divorce

Sometimes the divorce process inspires an understandable need to vent. Venting can be both cathartic and healthy. But it is critical that should you need to vent about your former spouse that you choose to do so away from social media and the Internet in general. The subject of social media and divorce is becoming increasingly complex. But as more and more divorce attorneys seek to obtain damning evidence about others via the Internet, your best policy is to stay away from social media during your divorce, child custody battle or other family law dispute.

Ideally, it is best to temporarily shut down your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other social media sites. Doing so may feel temporarily isolating, but by doing so you insulate yourself from potential liability based on activity on these accounts. Even something so harmless as "checking in" at a nice restaurant for your birthday might be perceived by opposing counsel and the court as evidence that you tend to spend money frivolously, which could impact the terms of your eventual divorce, child custody and child support agreements.

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 Posted on December 07, 2012 in Divorce

Most divorce proceedings are not the subject of devious behavior. However, sometimes spouses either intentionally or unintentionally fail to disclose various assets to their former spouse and to the court. Whether these assets are intentionally or unintentionally hidden, it is imperative that they be uncovered. Failure to take all marital assets into account when constructing a divorce settlement arrangement can ultimately harm both parties.

How do you go about finding hidden assets? First, you need to know what you're looking for. Various purchases and rewards are considered assets, even if they are not big ticket items. For example, frequent flyer miles might not strike you as an asset per say. However, they have value and thus must be disclosed.

Other resources you might not ordinarily consider to be assets include outstanding time from a time share program, tax refunds, hobby collections of any value and patents, royalties and copyrights. Basically, any resource you have access to that has or reasonably could have outstanding monetary value in the future should be disclosed during divorce proceedings.

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 Posted on November 23, 2012 in Child Custody

Research recently published in the social work journal Family Relations indicates that when co-parents focus their relationship on the needs of their children, a more satisfying custody arrangement is experienced by all affected family members. Meaning that when parents who are divorced or otherwise not parenting under the same roof put their differences aside for the benefit of their children, these parents benefit from this effort as well.

It can be difficult to know exactly how to go about putting aside your differences and focusing on your children's needs. After all, in the immediate aftermath of divorce especially, the differences between co-parents can seem overwhelming and all consuming. In order to redirect focus away from tension and onto children, parents are advised to put time and thought into creating a parenting plan.

A parenting plan can outline whatever child-related issues would benefit from being communicated about in advance. For example, the parenting plan can discuss how parents will share time with their children during the holiday season and how disputes about extracurricular activities will be solved.

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 Posted on October 26, 2012 in Divorce

Many people have heard of prenuptial agreements but may be less familiar with the idea of postnuptial agreements. Both are used as tools to define the marital assets of each spouse in the event of a divorce. Postnuptial agreements, however, are drafted after a marriage instead of before like a prenuptial agreement. According to a recent survey, postnuptial agreements are becoming more popular.

The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) found that over half of family law attorneys have seen a rise in postnuptial agreements over the past three years. In particular wives seem to be requesting such agreements more frequently, with over a third of lawyers polled noting a rise in women seeking postnuptial agreements. The survey showed, however, that men still seem to be the party more likely to initiate a request for a postnuptial agreement.

"It is interesting to note the increase in wives requesting postnups, because often one of the most common motivators for these agreements is a dramatic change in the financial status of one or both partners during the marriage," explained the president of the AAML. He also explained that postnuptial agreements may help spouses deal with conflicts about assets which may threaten a marriage.

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