Posted on June 23, 2021 in Family Law

A wedding ring/engagement ring is a gift signifying your marriage and your love for one another. You gave your spouse a ring when you decided to get married.

Now, though, your spouse has asked for a divorce. Does that mean they have to give the ring back?

Your spouse likely gets to keep it

You can certainly ask for the ring back. If your spouse wants to return it — even knowing that it cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars — they can choose to do so. But, legally speaking, they probably do not have to return the ring (no matter how much it cost).

For one thing, the ring was a gift, and an engagement ring is a gift given to someone before marriage. That makes it their separate property. You bought it, but your spouse brought it to the marriage. It was their property before the marriage and does not have to go back to you in a divorce.

Additionally, even if you say that you only gave it to them because they promised to marry you, they already fulfilled that end of the deal. They did marry you. Getting divorced ends that marriage, but that does not mean it never happened. The rights to the ring do not go back to you just because the marriage is ending.

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 Posted on June 10, 2021 in Child Custody

If you are divorcing a spouse with a drug or alcohol addiction, there are some specific issues you must sort out regarding the custody of your minor children. While these matters can get quite complicated, it is imperative that both the addicted parent and their sober counterpart work together for the best interests of their kids.

Below are some things to keep in mind when setting custody terms with a co-parent with a substance abuse problem.

The courts prefer two-parent custody arrangements

All things being equal, family law courts all over the country find that it is in children's best interests to share time with both parents as much as is possible. However, when a co-parent is an alcoholic or a drug addict, that can be a barrier to co-parenting. In all cases, the safety and well-being of the children is the primary focus. Courts can rule that addicted parents who are not currently in recovery and actively working to stay sober are not fit to spend time alone with their children.

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 Posted on May 28, 2021 in Child Custody

Joint custody and co-parenting is usually the preferred solution in modern divorces. It gives both parents time with the children and provides the kids with the broadest social support network possible. Unfortunately, a parent asking for joint custody may not do so with the best interests of the children in mind.

After the divorce, a parent might quickly stop showing up or begin to sporadically cancel their parenting time, often at the last minute. These cancellations are difficult for you because you then must maintain constant responsibility for the children. It can also be hard on the kids, who will likely feel rejected.

How do you tell them about yet another canceled visit?

It is important to keep a positive attitude and try not to point fingers. You probably feel angry or disappointed when you learn that your ex won't be there to get the kids. You need to suppress your own feelings and focus on the children when you tell them about the change in plans.

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 Posted on May 18, 2021 in Family Law

Prior to the wedding, many couples decide to draft a prenuptial agreement to better clarify the assets and debts that each party is individually bringing into the marriage. The document is designed to be used as a tool to prevent future disagreements. Unfortunately, while this marital contract is supposed to focus solely on financial matters, many couples attempt to over-reach the intended focus of a prenuptial agreement.

One common trend is for couples to include factors that can be listed under a category header such as "lifestyle." These various lifestyle choices can include:

• Chores: Whether it is an attempt at humor or they are creating a realistic schedule, such as dishes, laundry, cooking, shopping or cleaning.
• Weight loss/weight gain: It is not uncommon for bodies to change as we get older. A marriage that lasts years or decades will likely see each party change. Attempting to include limits on weight loss or weight gain in a pre-marital contract goes beyond the intended scope of the agreement.

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 Posted on May 14, 2021 in Child Custody

If you've started to dread those times during the week when you and your co-parent drop off or pick up your child at each other's home or elsewhere, you're not alone. These custody exchanges can be fraught with tension and even conflict -- particularly in the early days of separation or divorce.

The problem is often that one or both parents use this time to deal with other issues. It can be anything from a late child support payment to a photo on Instagram - and everything in-between.

If you're dreading these exchanges, chances are that your child is as well. That's why it's important to make these exchanges solely about your child, and specifically about immediate "need-to-know" matters. Settle other issues at another time, out of earshot of your child.

The "two-minute exchange"

If you and your co-parent still aren't at a place in your relationship where you can even exchange basic information about your child without someone being offended or getting angry, one family therapist recommends what she calls the "two-minute exchange." She points out that, with a little planning, an efficient custody exchange can be done in this period.

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 Posted on April 30, 2021 in Divorce

Whether you're initiating a divorce proceeding or responding to your spouse's petition for divorce, you know that you need to speak with an attorney as soon as possible — but good preparation can be essential.

It's smart to head to your attorney with as many relevant documents as you can so that your attorney has a good idea of what your finances look like and the topics that will be most important to address during your divorce.

What kinds of documents should you take to your attorney?

Initially, it may be hard to tell what your attorney may need to see, so it's best to take a broad approach. You should such as:

• Your financial records, including banking account records, 401(k) documents and tax returns for the last few years
• If abuse or domestic violence is a factor, copies of emails, videos, police reports and other documents that support your claims
• Any Prenuptial or post-nuptial agreements you and your spouse may have signed

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 Posted on April 16, 2021 in Divorce

Cohabitation before marriage is often viewed in two ways. On one side, couples say that it can lower their odds of divorce: If the cohabitation goes poorly, the couple knows they should not get married. On the other side, there are those who claim that living together before marriage just makes divorce more likely.

It's not that either side is necessarily wrong. They're just not talking about the same time in American history. It is true that cohabitation used to be tied to greater divorce odds, but that is no longer the case.

So what changed?

Wondering how this could have changed? The issue is with cultural norms. Sociology professor Arielle Kuperberg noted that social norms in the 1950s through the 1970s largely stood against couples living together before marriage. They also stood against married couples getting divorced.

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 Posted on April 02, 2021 in Divorce

Having a prenuptial agreement should give you some sense of security as you head toward divorce. That agreement already defines a lot of the terms of the divorce. It may state how assets should be divided, which assets count as separate property and things of this nature.

Done properly, it can really reduce the number of considerations you have.

Reasons for invalid prenups

That said, your prenup actually has to be valid for it to stand up in court and impact your case in the ways noted above. Here are it may not be valid that you should consider:

• Either one of you did not bother to read the prenup before signing and therefore signed something you didn't understand.
• One of you felt pressure to sign and made a decision based on that pressure, not on what you wanted.
• One of you was tricked into signing it, perhaps by being told it was a different sort of document.
• The prenup was created and signed too close to the wedding, meaning neither of you had enough time to think about it and make a rational decision.

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 Posted on March 22, 2021 in Divorce

Many seniors are in the home stretch, just a few short weeks away from graduating high school. Sadly, many spouses are beginning to plot their divorces at this same time. You read that right.

There's been a staggering uptick in divorce filings around graduation time in recent years.

What's the connection between divorce and graduation?

Many couples seem more connected than ever as they attend their kids' graduations only to file for divorce weeks later. You may be wondering what causes this sudden demise of their relationship.

The truth is that it's not really as sudden of an end as it seems. Many spouses have long been unhappy by the time they file for divorce, yet they simply put on a happy face and tolerated things so as not to disrupt their kids' lives. Many parents start to see how their kids become less reliant on them post-graduation and take advantage of that shift to begin focusing on what makes them happy again. This reflection often includes divorcing the spouse they grew distant from a long time ago.

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 Posted on March 18, 2021 in Firm News

If you have recently received an inheritance - or soon will - and a divorce is imminent, you could be concerned. Will the divorce court take half of your inheritance and give it to your soon-to-be ex-spouse? Will the divorce court subtract the value of your inheritance from your share of the marital assets?

In order to answer these questions, it's important to understand the difference between marital property and individual property.

Marital and individual property

Generally speaking, individual property is anything you had before you got married, while is assets that you acquired during your marriage. There are several exceptions to this, however.

For example, if you have something that is individual property, but you use it consistently together as a couple, it might become marital property (such as if you own a house that your spouse moves into with you after marriage).

Usually, divorce courts will let both spouses keep their respective individual property and will only divide marital property equitably.

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