Dwayne Parsons knows what paternity fraud feels like. He will go on knowing for the next 1,913 years, after a Chester, Virginia judge ordered him to pay past child support payments on a child legally proven not to be his, at the rate of $1 a month1. Though he had been falsely accused of paternity for the child since 2000, ...
Shakespeare thought little of names. Why else did he have Juliet Capulet say, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet ...” For The Bard, the substance of a person or object was found in its essence, not its name. You may not feel so gracious if your ex-wife is continuing ...
The New Year has brought with it many householders determined to stay on budgets, so they sit down in earnest and divvy up paychecks to be spent on housing, food, and so on. If, like Virginia’s legislators, they do this without regard to actual income and expenses, their budgets are doomed. In similar fashion, Virginia’s lawmakers often stipulate programs but do not provide ...
Pixar’s Finding Nemo came out in 2003 and we will bet that 14 years later you did not notice it recreates Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s “Five Stages of Grief” hypothesis. The movie adds support to the running theme of Pixar films: they are all little psychological test cases. The emotional buffet of Inside Out, Up, Brave and others has been well explored ...
You and your wife divorced several years ago. She has sole custody of Diane and Diego, who are now ages 7 and 11. Diego, during one visitation weekend, tells you he comes home after school and, until his mother (your ex-wife) gets home, he is responsible for Diane. Sometimes that is a matter of minutes; other days, he says, she ...
Take a good look at your brothers and sisters; for most of us, family is an oasis of affection amid a sea of indifference. Your brothers and sisters are probably typical Virginians; not the homeliest creatures to walk the earth, but not glamour-model good looking, either. They probably have their share of troubles and bad habits, too. Families are nature’s ...
Virginia in the 21st century retains much of its Southern grace and charm in many little ways, like its paternalistic approach to caring for Virginia’s children. Vested in the Code of Virginia is, repeatedly, “the best interest of the child.” In child custody, the Commonwealth of Virginia stands second to none in defending what is best and right and just ...
O! How lucky we are to live in a world that gave us Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs singing their weird little pop song1, “Oh That’s Good, No That’s Bad.” In the Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ (we'll truncate them to StSatP — you're welcome) song, every seemingly good thing turns out to be bad, while every bad thing leads ...
It's a chaotic time after any kind of fight's taken place and you're either charged, or think you may be charged with a crime, let alone when the incident involves domestic assault. You can easily find yourself caught up in a whirlwind of information and legal jargon that it's hard to think straight, let alone form a plan of action ...