Every lawyer handles initial consultation situation differently. Furthermore, since the laws of each state, county, and locality differ bases on where the lawyer is located, the conversation at the initial interview or “consultation” will change depending on that location. However, there are some basics you should know if you are talking with a divorce lawyer…
Lawyers know what the legal requirements are to file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with a court-of-law. However, I would be willing to bet that most readers this blog have no idea what the legal requirements are. If you feel like being educated, read on. The requirements for a valid and enforceable petition for…
This post is probably a little more interesting to lawyers (like me), but it is also important that people who are dealing with a family law situation know the definitions of “residency” or “domicile”. The terms “residency” and “domicile” have important ramifications for where a person can file an initial family law case; including, divorce,…
I wanted to talk about whether a divorce settlement is legally binding in this post. Why? Because somebody found this blog using those exact search terms which they typed into a search engine: “is a divorce settlement legally binding?” I thought about the questions when I read the search terms and I realized that the…
As a lawyer, I often look at a particular state’s laws and read the definitions of the words I am researching. I have to know the word-by-word definitions of many legal terms and, at times, it can be very confusing. Imagine what non-lawyers feel like when they are trying to understand the law. I would…
Although the law varies from state-to-state, there is a certain period of time in which a person who is served with divorce paperwork must submit their own “Answer” or risk being defaulted by the court. As divorce lawyers will tell you, filing an Answer is a very important step in defending your rights in any…
If there is a number one question that I get asked by clients it would be: “how does a judge make a decision on who gets child custody?” My answer is different depending on the facts of each individual case, but, to keep it simple, the judge makes a decision based on the “best interest…
A divorce is a different legal proceedings than a legal separation. This is true in every state in the United States. A divorce has its own set of laws which govern how it proceeds through the legal system. The same goes for a legal separation. Put simply, a legal separation is just what it sounds…
