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 ...
Everyday conversation is (unfortunately) littered with references to mental health. We routinely call people crazy, nuts, and cray-cray. We claim our spouse is a loon, a nutcase, a psychopath, or a sociopath. These may work in casual chatter but mean nothing in a court of law. Mental health evaluations are often pivotal parts of child custody and other family law ...
Wanna put an unpleasant divorce behind you? Consider moving to Tristan Da Cunha, in the calm and lovely brutally harsh South Atlantic Ocean! Tristan Da Cunha, the most remote place on earth, is 1,750 miles from South Africa. It’s as good a place as any to move if you hope to transfer your child out of school to a spot ...