Parenting
How to Minimize the Effects of Divorce on Children
While no couple enters into marriage expecting it to end in divorce, 20 percent of first marriages end in divorce within five years, and 48 percent of first marriages end in divorce within twenty years. Despite its commonality, divorce is an emotionally charged process for the entire family. Unlike adults,…
Read MoreWhen Failure To Allow Parenting Time Isn’t Indirect Contempt
That’s not one of my catchier titles, but it’s apt for this post. Parenting time (also known as visitation) is time a parent spends with his or her child. We often don’t think about parenting time during a marriage or committed relationship because it occurs so regularly and so freely,…
Read MoreIs Parenting A Right?
No, it’s not. Here’s why (in brief): Rights cannot (or really should not) be violated. A U.S. citizen’s right to due process presumably cannot be thrown out or ignored. Obviously this is a bit more complicated, but for the purposes of this conversation, it’s apt. A parent’s relationship with a…
Read MoreWhat’s The Difference Between A Child Representative, Child’s Attorney, and Guardian ad Litem?
Custody battles are one of the more complex, and emotionally fraught, processes in family law. It’s not uncommon for the parties to have widely divergent ideas of what does or does not constitute appropriate parenting. To put it lightly, the parties may not be in agreement about what’s in the…
Read MoreDoes Distance Matter When Removing A Child?
Removal is an interesting topic because there is occasionally a dissonance between how the court views the subject and how the parents view the subject. The court will typically consider five factors when discussing removal: (1) the likelihood that the move would enhance the general quality of life for the residential parent and child; (2) the…
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