The judge assigned her. The state pays her. Your child custody issues hinges on her word. Face it: you have a lot at stake when a guardian ad litem (GAL) drops by for a home visit. She (or he — the Supreme Court of Virginia keeps a list of qualified GALs of both genders) is not your attorney; she is ...
When, not if. When is a far more compelling word than if. If is conditional; it may or may not happen. When is not conditional: it announces something as inevitable. When you go to jail for failure to pay child support in Virginia, you invite a whole lotta hurt. If you can bear to read about it, when you get ...
Steve Shubin owns U.S. Patent #5782818A1, a “Device for discreet sperm collection.” We mention this because a) Steve Shubin is a multimillionaire now, b) the “device” is better known as the Fleshlight, and c) if you as a Virginia man separate from your wife in Virginia, you just might need one. Separation Anxiety When you separate from your spouse in ...
Heritage seems to be a watchword in Virginia these days. Heritage symbolized in statues, or flags, or skin tone. Our American justice system has its heritage, too. It is a roughly equal mix of ancient Roman law, British Common Law, and American innovation. Parental rights have walked the long path from Roman custom through British ancestry to today’s completely American ...
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a safety net provided by federal tax dollars to prevent low-income elderly or disabled individuals, including blind or disabled children, from living on canned cat food. That may be a bit of hyperbole, but the poor (literally) folks getting SSI must have almost no other assets. So how does SSI figure in child support calculations? ...
Virginia divorce proceedings are about as easy or hard as those of our five bordering states. Fortunately, Virginia does not follow the example of a neighbor to the north: Vermont requires a year’s residency, six months’ separation, and three-month decree nisi waiting period — 21 long months. If you file in the right Virginia jurisdiction, you usually can be divorced ...
Ruffling is how birds raise their feathers for cleaning. They transform from sleek flying machines into puffy pincushions so they can preen away dirt, dust, and mites. Ruffle also means to annoy or fluster. You definitely do not want to ruffle your wife — in any sense of the word — when seeking a divorce. Minimize Ruffled Feathers Perhaps you ...
Child support payments in Virginia are neither reward nor punishment. They are intended to keep children happily living the lives they came to expect before Mom and Dad went their separate ways. If both parents want to put a halt to child support, is Virginia okay with that? Okay, Why Child Support? Virginia requires child support payments so that Virginia’s ...
Parental alienation syndrome first got its label back in 1985, when Dr. Richard Gardner first described distinctive behaviors in children that included extreme (unwarranted) fear, disrespect or hostility towards a parent. That was 35 years ago, meaning we have had time to see and study the corrosive effects of this emotional abuse. What do we find in adults who had parental ...