We were at a kids’ birthday party the other day, and the parents had thoughtfully booked local magician, Rob Westcott1. Rob is not only a great entertainer but also a holder of a JD (law) degree. He has a rabbit, Prince Charming, whose primary job is to emerge at the right time from a top hat. Prince Charming has never once ...
What is the fine line between being a badass dad and being a jerk? You just know it when you see it. Being badass as a dad has nothing to do with breaking laws, bullying others, or being physically powerful. Being a badass dad begins with putting your kids above all else. Here are some great quotes to remember what ...
Two aspects of life in Virginia should not be a burden: service in the military and divorce. With both experiences, Virginia men undergo enough stress that no additional problems should tax their minds and hearts. Deployment for military service does not affect your right to file for divorce in Virginia, thanks to federal legal protection. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act ...
Perhaps as a way to make ourselves feel better, humans unscientifically invented the notion of “compensation” for deficits. We tell ourselves, for instance, that blind people have more acute hearing, or that hearing-impaired people are excellent lip readers (neither of which is true, says Michigan’s Community Service Commission). Often we drape the same socially comfortable cover over fatherlessness, trying to ...
Unless intertwined with some unusual circumstances, divorce in Virginia is a civil, not a criminal, matter. While you can be charged with filing a false police report under Virginia Code § 18.2-461, if you change your mind after filing for divorce, you have not committed any crime and cannot be charged with filing a false divorce petition. Undoing what you ...
The 2018 Chevy Bolt EV incorporated two revolutionary changes over the 2017 model: a heated steering wheel and no map pocket. For a market sector that prides itself on literally reinventing the wheel every year to sell cars, the Bolt EV throws a monkey wrench into that engine of industry. The same is true for Virginia divorce; some changes are not ...
Virginia’s laws of evidence are described and organized in great detail in the Rules of Supreme Court of Virginia (616 pages and no pictures!). Thumb through to page 95 and you get to the Good Part, the Virginia Rules of Evidence, which continue along to page 175, a tedious and tiresome 80 pages. Clearly, if the ancients wished to hide ...
Though they may appear to never step down from their lofty perches behind the judge’s bench, Virginia’s judges really are just regular folks, aware of how little time other Virginians have for the often drawn-out pomp and procedures of a family law courtroom. A shortage of time is part of the reason for the 2003 creation of Virginia’s Judicial Settlement Conference ...
Sometimes we are glib. Sometimes we are silly, or outrageous. With a topic like parental alienation, we see no room for silliness; too many Virginia men suffer from being the victim of what clinicians call Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS). PAS pits the normally unbroken circle of family members against one another. If you as a Virginia father are suffering from the ...