Posted on May 27, 2025 in Child Custody

When a parent seeks to change a child custody arrangement, the court does not make that decision lightly. A custody modification can affect where a child lives, how much time they spend with each parent and how decisions are made about their care. Because of these potential impacts, the court evaluates requests with a strong focus on the child's best interests.

Family dynamics, circumstances and the needs of the child can change over time. When that happens, one or both parents may request a new custody arrangement. However, a parent must show a significant change in circumstances before the court will even consider making a modification.

How do judges make custody modification determinations?

Courts focus on what is best for the child rather than what is most convenient for either parent. Judges will before deciding whether a custody order should be changed. These may include:

• The physical and emotional needs of the child and whether those needs are being met under the current arrangement

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 Posted on May 15, 2025 in Divorce

Dividing finances during a divorce in Virginia requires a clear picture of both parties' financial circumstances. Courts use this information to divide property fairly and determine support obligations.

To do this, each spouse must disclose key financial documents. Below are the most important documents that are needed.

Income and employment records

Both spouses must provide proof of all sources of income. This includes recent pay stubs, W-2 forms and tax returns from the past few years. If either spouse is self-employed, business income statements and profit and loss reports may also be needed. Bonus payments, commissions, rental income and other sources of earnings should also be disclosed.

Assets and property details

Virginia law requires full disclosure of all marital and separate property. This includes bank account statements, retirement account balances and investment portfolios. If either spouse owns real estate, they must submit mortgage statements and property valuations. Vehicles, valuable collectibles and personal property of significant value may also need to be listed with supporting documents.

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 Posted on May 01, 2025 in Child Custody

When co-parenting after a divorce, you and your ex could run into some conflicts over how certain decisions should be made. For example, maybe your child graduated from elementary school and needs to enroll in middle school. You think that a certain school would be best, but your ex doesn't like it and wants to enroll the child in a completely different school. Another example could be if your child needs certain types of healthcare, but your ex believes it isn't necessary.

The crux of these issues revolves around legal custody. Parents who have legal custody of their children-which can be distinctly different from physical custody-are the ones who make decisions on the child's behalf. If you have sole legal custody, even if you share physical custody so that your child sometimes lives with your ex, you can make these decisions on your own. But if you share , then the two of you have to agree.

The court can make a ruling

In most cases, courts encourage parents to work together and find joint solutions. They need to be able to compromise and must realize that they won't always get 100% of what they want in every case.

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 Posted on April 17, 2025 in Divorce

Depending on your age when you're getting divorced, your retirement options may be at the forefront of your mind. For instance, the rate of divorce for those who are 65 years old and older has tripled over the last few decades. Couples around this age are often planning to retire in the very near future.

But you may be concerned if your spouse was earning retirement benefits or a pension plan, and you planned to use them to retire jointly. Now that the two of you have decided to get divorced, do you have any right to those benefits, or are you just out of retirement options? After all, it may be too late to begin saving on your own since you anticipated having those benefits at your disposal.

A qualified domestic relations order

You can split up the retirement benefits in many cases, and you do it with a qualified domestic relations order. This can be put in place before your spouse retires. After they do, they have to give you the percentage of the plan allotted to you in the QDRO.

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 Posted on April 02, 2025 in Child Custody

You're worried about losing your connection with your child after the divorce. The problem isn't necessarily your spouse, however, but your child's own preference. When you told them that the two of you were going to get divorced, they told you that they only wanted to live with your ex.

However, you may find yourself wondering if your child even can make this decision in the first place. Don't you have to split up child custody rights? If the court gives you custody, doesn't that mean that you will maintain the relationship with your child?

Your child's preference

Courts may indeed need to make a custody ruling if you and your spouse can't agree on an arrangement yourselves. It's also true that many courts will split custody between parents so that neither one of them loses touch with their child.

That said, your is one of the factors that the court can consider. First and foremost, it likely depends on your child's age and other relevant factors. The court needs to believe that the child is old enough and wise enough to understand the decision they're making.

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 Posted on March 28, 2025 in Divorce

Investing is an important financial strategy for people thinking about the future. Married couples often develop investment plans as a way to increase their personal wealth and prepare for retirement. They buy stocks, acquire vacant parcels of land, purchase gold or even accrue digital resources that could appreciate in value over time. Often, the intention is to hold these investments for years or even decades.

If couples invest during a marriage and then decide to divorce, they may have a challenging process ahead. Investments come in many different forms, and couples may have diversified their portfolios to optimize their financial stability. They could have a number of different types of investments to address as they seek to divide their property equitably. Spouses with investments can anticipate numerous challenges arising in the near future, including the three discussed below.

Separating personal investments from marital ones

Individuals driven to achieve financial stability and career success may have already made significant strides toward those goals before getting married. They may have accumulated real estate holdings, stock portfolios and other assets. Spouses may need to invest time and effort into analyzing their holdings to determine what is marital property and what is separate property that only belongs to one spouse.

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 Posted on March 16, 2025 in Divorce

It's certainly a stressful time for federal employees here in Northern Virginia and across the country. If you're considering or already planning a divorce (and you and/or your spouse is a federal employee), the temperature in Washington can definitely add uncertainty and stress for the whole family during an already stressful time.

If you're the spouse of a current or retired federal employee, you may be able to continue to receive health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) plan post-divorce. It's important to know whether you will continue to qualify for this coverage and what your options are if you don't.

Can you continue to receive FEHB coverage?

As long as you were covered under your spouse's FEHB plan any time during the 18 months prior to divorce and are eligible to receive a portion of their annuity or survivor benefit, you're eligible under the Spouse Equity Act to get your own FEHB plan that you can stay on unless and until you remarry before you turn 55. If you remarry after that, your coverage will continue. You can't continue to be covered on your ex-spouse's plan once the divorce is final. (Note that your children can remain on your ex's plan.)

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 Posted on March 07, 2025 in Divorce

One conflict a couple sometimes runs into during a divorce is what to do with the engagement ring. An engagement ring can be a significant investment. Many people spend thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands, on them. As a result, both spouses may see the ring as a very valuable asset, and both may want to have it when the marriage ends.

What happens to the ring often depends on when the relationship ends. Generally, courts look at engagement rings as , where the condition is that the couple gets married. The only reason that this expensive gift was offered in the first place was due to the request to marry, so that must be honored in order for the transfer of the gift to be complete.

How this could affect property division

One couple may be engaged for a few years while they are planning their wedding. But if they break that engagement off before the wedding, then the person who received the ring has not satisfied the condition of marriage. That person is generally expected to return the ring to the person who purchased it.

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 Posted on February 21, 2025 in Divorce

When couples divorce in Virginia, their property is classified as either separate or marital. This distinction can play an important role in determining what each spouse is entitled to, especially when a divorce process is not wholly amicable.

Ultimately, gifts can fall into either category of property, depending on various factors such as who gave the gift, when it was received and how it was used during the marriage.

Separate property vs. marital property

Virginia follows the equitable distribution model, which means that marital property is divided fairly, though not necessarily equally, in the event that property-related disagreements need to be resolved by a judge. Separate property belongs solely to one spouse and is generally not subject to division. Marital property, on the other hand, generally has been acquired during the marriage and typically belongs to both spouses.

Gifts can be considered separate property if:

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 Posted on February 06, 2025 in Child Custody

Parenting a teenager is not an easy task, and co-parenting a teenager is often even more challenging than parenting solo or parenting alongside a child's other parent. Unlike most younger children, teens are striving for independence, developing their own opinions, and juggling school, extracurricular activities and social lives. They may also be more skilled at - consciously or subconsciously - playing one co-parent against the other in an effort to get what they want or need.

Thankfully, regardless of what your family's unique circumstances may be, if you co-parent your teen with your ex, there are some tried and true strategies that you can employ to more successfully approach your situation. While each of these tips is far easier "said than done," being thoughtful about implementing them in ways that work for your family can be helpful.

Prioritize communication

To the extent that this is possible, engaging in open and consistent communication with your co-parent is important. For starters, teens are often busy, and last-minute changes to their schedules are common. Both parents should be appropriately flexible and willing to adjust plans as needed.

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