In 1784, you could have married in the State of Franklin and by 1789 seen that state disappear. As the Smithsonian magazine explains1, the short-lived, eight-county state rebelled from North Carolina and wrote its own constitution before later returning to the Tar Heel State. If in 1790 you had wanted to divorce your State of Franklin wife, what could you ...
Birth records in Virginia were not required before 1912. In some ways, life was simpler then. A kid was your kid if you said she was your kid, and who was going to argue? With birth certificates, things got complicated and, sometimes, a little dicey. What if you put your name on the birth certificate and then found out you ...
Habeas ut nanctus. Plautus, a Roman playwright, wrote that in 194 BCE. It means, “He keeps that finds.” Today, we and a playground of school kids would say, “Finders, keepers; losers, weepers.” Property disputes during separation in Virginia sometimes come down to winners and losers. Separation in Virginia Virginia law has a long-way-around legal path to separation. You cannot be ...
Children, says doctor of psychology Sue Cornbluth1, want three things from their parents in divorce: to not be caught in the middle, to know the divorce is not their fault, and for the parents to act like adults. Sadly, one parent often pits the children against the other, violating all three of those wishes. Parental alienation is a form of ...
Ugh. The judge decreed it. You pay it. Month after grueling month of paying spousal support, and for what? Well, if you really want an answer, spousal support could be money for classes so your ex-wife can learn a marketable skill. Whatever good may come from spousal support, you know you want to pay less, and soon. The Basics of ...
How many zeros in a bajillion dollars? Sometime in the early 1990s, trolls and wags forged the word bajillion to join all the other words for a fantastically large amount of money. Kazillion, katrillion, umptillion — and our personal favorite, Godzillion (a cross between cool cash and a Japanese movie monster?). Just how much money does a Virginia noncustodial parent ...
We all remember the quaint days of “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service.” Nowadays, it’s “No Mask, No Service.” What happens if it’s “No Court Order, No Custody” looming in your life? At The Start: Equal Responsibility in Parenting Babies are natural. Paperwork is not. Babies are born free and unencumbered by birth certificates, immunization records, report cards, driver licenses, ...
Go along to get along. Or is it, “Get along to go along?” Sam Rayburn said it the second way; author Hillary Jordan went the other way. Here’s a wrinkle: “Get along to go.” As in, go out of state. To make child custody and relocation work, you have to get along with your children’s mother, and the judge. Virginia ...
When we say, “All work is noble,” we not only forget the other half of that quotation, but we also ignore the subtle disdain it shows for anyone not working. When Maria Montessori said, “All work is noble,” she finished the thought with, “the only ignoble thing is to live without working.” What does Virginia make of a mother who ...