Divorce

The legal problems arising from divorce have to do, not with the termination of the marriage, but with what should happen after the marriage is over and the two spouses begin their lives apart.

These problems involve children and/or money. With children, the main questions are: (1) where will they live, (2) who will decide what's best for them, (3) how will they continue their relationship with both parents, and (4) who will provide the money needed to support them. Questions about money generally concern: (1) how to divide property acquired during the marriage and (2) whether one spouse will continue to provide money to support the other and, if so, how much that support will be and how long will it have to be paid.

• Annulments  

• The Basic Steps in the Divorce Process
  
  
• Grounds for Divorce
  
  
• Simple Uncontested Divorce
  
  
• Mediation
  
  
• When a Lawyer is Essential
  
  
• Child Support
  
  
• Spousal Support
  
  
• Separation Agreements
  
  
• Equitable Distribution

Child Custody

Issues concerning children are usually the most emotional of all. It is common for one parent to try to alienate the children from the other parent. Some parents try to exclude the other spouse from the children's lives completely, sometimes with good reason such as when the other spouse is dangerous or engaged in criminal activity. Another source of conflict is differences in parenting styles and judgment about what the children should be doing. Perhaps the most difficult issue to face divorced parents is what to do when one wants to move.

These issues seldom come with clean and simple answers. The solutions are often messy and frequently leave one party very dissatisfied. If one parent is reasonable and the other is not, workable compromises may not be possible.

The judge has a lot of leeway in resolving conflicts over custody. In making those decisions, the judge is required to put the best interests of the child first. The judge isn't limited to the parents, either. Section 20-124.2 of the code allows anyone "with a legitimate interest" to petition for custody. This provision is often invoked by a grandparent when both parents are unfit for one reason or another.

Child custody cases frequently involve additional participants acting in an official capacity.  It is customary for the court to order home studies in which a social worker is sent to the houses of the contending parents.  The worker looks at the dwelling, talks with the parent and sometimes the children, and reports what he or she observes.  

It is also customary for the court to appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the interests of the children.  The authority to make such appointments is granted by Section 16.1-266 of the Virginia Code.   The guardian ad litem is a lawyer whose mandate is to represent the "best interests" of the child.   

While laudable in concept, this idea frequently diminishes rather than enhances the quality of the decision making.  Often judges will defer so much to the opinion of the guardian ad litem that the lawyer comes close to supplanting the judge as the actual decision-maker.   Apart from required courses in the law concerning children, the guardian ad litem is not required to have any special training in child development or methods of child rearing.  The lawyer is thus left to fall back on his or her own judgment, which is informed by little more than their own background and what they have learned in the course of their practice.  

The question of custody is never permanently settled. The court retains the power to alter the custody arrangements until the child turns 18 or is emancipated.

Move Aways

Interstate Custody Cases