January 1, 2018 was monumental for many reasons. For many a bleary-eyed party-goer, the day started late and held such auspicious news as a new world darts champion and California’s move to legalize recreational cannabis. And, of course, the United States military inaugurated its Blended Retirement System. Happy New Year! BRS – The Blended Retirement System It’s our beloved military, ...
We went to visit one of Virginia Beach’s psychic readers the other day. We knocked on her door. From somewhere inside she asked, “Who is it?” So we left. How good could she be? Anyway, even though child support calculations can seem to be the stuff of crystal ball gazing, they really are not beyond your abilities to understand. Let’s ...
Everybody likes parties. New Year’s Eve parties, office parties (look, there’s cake!), birthday parties. In the law, however, you can have one party or two parties. Here, we’re talking about consenting parties to recording. And Virginia is a one-party consent state. Wiretapping in Virginia The colloquial term, “wiretapping,” actually has a legal definition, too. Under Code of Virginia § 19.2-62 ...
If good manners are the grease to keep society’s wheels turning, then regulations and rules are the guardrails to help us all stay on track. Laws, rules, regulations, guidelines; they all provide for predictability and stability. Everyone agrees to “play” by the rules, even when we’re not playing games. That is why continuances in Virginia family law cases must be ...
Here’s a mathematical puzzle to nudge your noggin: how can you take $8,800 and turn it into $7.5 million? Ben Franklin knew the trick; he left $4,400 to Boston and the same sum to Philadelphia, leaving the heavy lifting to compound interest. Exactly 200 years later, Boston had a tidy sum of $5 million, with Philadelphia reaping about $2.5 million. ...
Custodial parents in Virginia truly represent the original meaning and heart of the word, “custody.” Starting around the 15th century, the word meant “guarding, watching, keeping.” That’s what custodial parents do, though the term makes the non-custodial parent sound like a freeloading oaf. We know you’re not. But what rights do you have as the non-custodial parent? Can you sign ...
You’re nothing special. Sounds harsh, right? Well, for a sliver of Virginia’s men, that’s actually good news. If you’re an alcoholic, you might think you are a rare misfire, a faulty launch. You are neither, since roughly 5.9 percent of Virginians and U.S. adults said they were “heavy drinkers,” according to the 2017 State of Virginia Epidemiological Profile: Alcohol (the ...
Have you ever been to a Virginia civil court proceeding? It’s truly wild, with fans shouting and a court clerk wandering the crowded aisles shouting, “Fresh laws! Get your fresh, new laws here!” No. It’s not like that at all, even when a law is straight out of the sausage factory in Richmond. The law we’re thinking of was newly ...
Montgomery Gentry wrote a song about it. “I’ll Keep the Kids” tells of the whole package: separation, divorce, child custody. But what happens outside of a Nashville recording studio, out here in the real world, when your wife up and leaves, and you have the house, the dog, and the kids to care for? This Little Thing We Like to ...