Let’s decode a legal concept, in personam jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is cobbled together from a Latin phrase meaning “law saying,” and in personam means “against a person” as opposed to a place or thing. Take it together and you get the law saying what a person can or cannot do, as in a divorce. Jump to a Section The 14th Amendment ...
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 ...
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 ...
Perhaps you and your wife woke up after a three-day honeymoon at Busch Gardens and realized you hardly know each other. Perhaps you both came to the conclusion, after a few years of earnestly trying, that you are simply not right for each other. No hard feelings, no bruised egos — you are both just ready to move on. You may ...
Your wife left you and your Virginia marital home six months ago and moved to Tennessee. Now you are served with papers saying she wants a divorce. In your gut you know she is right — you two were not destined for a strong future together. Your head, though, is fogged; does the divorce happen in Tennessee, or in Virginia? Does ...
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 ...
True or false (it’s okay — you’re not sworn in): Electronic ankle bracelets were inspired by a Spider Man comic. That is true, says CBR.com1. Judge Jack Love read a Spider Man comic strip about a villain tracking Spidey with such a bracelet and asked computer salesman Michael T. Goss to make it. In 1983, the ankle monitor was born. After ...
For anyone in our nation’s military services, acronyms are a fact of life. From Weapon Of Magnesium, Battalion, Anti-Tank — aka WOMBAT — to Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems (MANPADS), weird clusters of letters invariably mean something important. The USFSPA, or Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act, is an important acronym that could be a path to a comfortable retirement in later ...
A property settlement agreement or separation agreement in a Virginia divorce is like the world’s weirdest grocery list. It will have a lot of details on it, in odd juxtaposition, and not a single item can be left out or you will certainly regret it later. In a moment of inspiration, we put together this convenient checklist while picking up ...