Few students of literature these days can easily recall Robert Frost’s Mending Wall1, but it begins with the famous “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” and ends with the ironic and eloquent, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Property disputes in divorce remind us of the sad irony and wistful despondency of Frost’s poem. The blithe neighbor in the ...
Virginia, sadly, has been the site of many battles throughout our nation’s history. From the 1610 Anglo-Powhatan Wars through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, our mighty state has seen a lot of clashes. It troubles us as attorneys that conflicts over child custody are routinely described as “battles.” A Virginia judge may, in fact, gauge your merit in a custody dispute based on ...
The short answer to this question is a rounding "yes," but understanding equitable distribution, what it is, and how it's divided is a topic all to itself. Equitable distribution doesn't mean splitting property right down the middle, but focuses instead on splitting property as fairly as possible. And while this certainly sounds encouraging, the reality behind a court deciding who ...
Without a doubt, being a single parent is one of the hardest jobs around. Not only do you have to be the financial provider holding down a regular job or two – but you must also provide emotional support for your children on a daily basis. The most successful single parents—mothers and fathers alike—develop strategies that allow them to accomplish ...
For the first quarter of 2017, American households carried $764 billion in credit card debt, says the Federal Reserve Bank of New York1. If your estranged wife is doing more than her part to add to that debt load, what can you do about it? More important, how does her behavior put you at risk? Estranged is a Strange Word ...
A popular riddle of decades ago recently resurfaced, in which a father and son are injured in a car accident; Dad is out of commission, and the son is wheeled into the operating room. The surgeon takes a look and says, “I can’t operate on my own son.” Decades ago, this riddle1 turned on the radical thought that the surgeon ...
Mark your calendars now: July 28, 2061 will be the perihelion of Halley’s Comet. No, don’t scratch your head; it’s when Halley’s Comet returns; its perihelion is the comet’s closest approach to the sun. Science is a marvel: we can know to the day when an important astronomical event like Halley’s Comet will be on us. Law is sometimes a ...
You know who has a very limited sense of humor? Attorneys and judges, that’s who. When you are embroiled in, say, a custody case, fighting for physical custody of your children, your fabled wit and insightful sarcasm should be conspicuously absent. The law, in Virginia and elsewhere, is a treasured, serious and honored idea. Judges especially do not enjoy courtroom ...
Though the fact may surprise some 21st-century Virginians, women did not have the same rights as men for most of our nation’s history. From 1769 onward, English Common Law treated a married man and woman as one person (coverture), meaning the wife’s identity disappeared1 into the man’s (though the man’s identity remained). Not until 1839 did any state give women ...