By Mary Ann Stokes
Is Mediation Right for You?
Does the Coronavirus impact my Spring Break Parenting Time?
Spring Break has been written in bold letters across your 2020 calendar for months. You've been looking forward to taking your children on the cultural excursion of a lifetime this Spring Break to Italy and you've been counting down the days one at a time. Your dreams have been filled with boat rides on Lake Como, a trip to the Coliseum in Rome, and a pasta cooking class in Bologna. But then it happened . . . COVID-19 spread from Hubei Province to Italy and your ex-spouse's name pops up on your Caller ID. You let it go to voicemail but listen to the dreaded voicemail, "Look, I know it is your Spring Break this year and I approved, but circumstances have changed so I am no longer on board with you taking the kids to Italy with this coronavirus outbreak. You need to cancel." So what can you do?
Payback & Alimony - getting reimbursed for your investment in your spouse's education and earning capacity.
Usually, marriage is a shared enterprise and a joint undertaking, but what happens when this enterprise goes awry? If one spouse put the other through higher education, what does she or he get in return for those contributions, when the parties divorce? While not the ideal remedy in every case, reimbursement alimony may be an available means to reimburse a supporting spouse.
What is my child's name supposed to be? If I change my name after my divorce, does my child's name change too?
When parents divorce, they can resume use of their prior surname, if they changed that name when they originally married. Nowadays, fathers and mothers might be facing the question of whether to resume a prior name, especially if they used the same name as their child during the marriage. Parents have the right to change their names; whether a child's name will change depends upon the parents and the Court. Even if parents are not married to each other, there are legal rights to decide the child's surname.
Question for 2020: Will I File Joint Income Tax Returns with My Spouse If I Am Getting a Divorce in 2019?
When Business Owners Divorce, Who Gets Paid?
If money was a person, how would you describe your relationship? Is friendly, or marked with tension and anxiety? In family law, we deal with that connection constantly, as we discuss alimony, child support, equitable distribution of assets and debts. Every family has its own method of managing assets, debts, expenses. When spouses divorce, it frequently comes to light that they had dramatically different ideas about money. Money might have caused strife, even if there was plenty to go around. Discussions about dividing assets and debts, and making appropriate arrangements for the support of the whole family, forces husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, to consider how they have acquired, spent and saved their money, and how they think they should be entitled to spend or save it in the future.
When your family needs privacy, go to arbitration instead of going to Court
Amanda S. Trigg is trained by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers as a Family Law Arbitrator.
Tax reform adds complexity to spousal support
Under the current system, a person paying alimony deducts his or her alimony payment thereby receiving a, sometimes substantial, tax break. The alimony recipient then has to report his or her receipt of alimony as income on their tax returns and therefore pay taxes on that amount at his or her, typically, lower tax bracket.
Provisions to include and exclude with your premarital agreement
The number of issues that can be involved in a divorce are myriad, and the divorcing spouses will bring their own varying personalities and traits to the table during the process. This means every divorce is unique, and though some matters are common among many divorces, it is unlikely that any one divorce will play out in the same way as another divorce.
Awarded alimony? Prepare to track the payments
There are many different issues involved in divorce. And although every case is unique, the number of issues that must be discussed will be myriad in every one. How will property division be handled? Are children involved? What are the custody, parenting time and support parameters? Did the spouses sign a prenuptial agreement before they walked down the aisle?
