As if getting divorced isn’t hard enough, you learn you must share many possibly intimate details with a virtual stranger—your divorce representative. Disclosing private information about life and marriage is undesirable for most, yet doing so ensures your counsel is...
Divorce
Pursuing an equitable distribution of your marital assets
The state of Virginia is not a community property state. As such, spouses who find themselves arguing a divorce case in front of a judge are not facing the inevitability that the value of their marital estate will be divided 50-50 between them. Virginia is an...
What divorcing federal employees need to know about RBCOs
If you’re a federal employee, you likely have a tidy sum building up in your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), even if you don’t think about it much. That’s the federal government’s version of the 401(k) retirement plan that private employers offer. If you’re divorcing,...
If your spouse isn’t hiding assets, are they dissipating them?
You’re probably well aware that some people will attempt to hide assets during divorce. You know that you don’t want your spouse to hide these assets from you so that you don’t get a portion of them, and you’ve taken the time to really consider everything that the two...
Keep your divorce process off of social media
It’s very tempting to use social media to tell everyone about everything that is happening in your life, especially when things are going poorly and you just want to vent. People who are going through a divorce sometimes feel a compulsion to write about the process on...
What happens if you discover your spouse has hidden assets?
The longer you stay married, the more property and debts you share with your spouse. Under Virginia's marital property laws, everything that you earn or acquire while married is usually marital property. In the event of a divorce, you and your spouse either agree on...
Dealing with the unique challenges of divorcing with a toddler
Parents who divorce when their child is a toddler often think that they really aren’t going to be impacted very much by the change in their family. However, just because they can’t express their thoughts and worries as effectively as older kids can, that doesn’t mean...
Are your in-laws making the divorce more difficult?
During your marriage, you and your in-laws got on very well. The union of you and your spouse meant that you were part of an extended family. Now that you and your spouse have decided to go your own way, this dynamic has been turned on its head. Your in-laws are...
Potential predictors of divorce
It is impossible to accurately predict all divorce cases. Many couples who split up never thought they would do so, and there were no signs from the outside that it was coming. There are also couples that stay together when everyone believes they're on the verge of...
Do you have to go through mediation before divorcing?
When you’re going through a divorce, one of the things that can make it easier is going into mediation with your spouse. Mediation brings you together with a third party to discuss your options and to make sure you both have unbiased information. Mediation can work...