Blog

June 20, 2020

Pennsylvania law has recognized same-sex marriage since 2014, when the federal government made it illegal for states to ban marriages between two men or two women. The Pennsylvania Department of Health does not keep data on which marriages are same-sex and which are opposite sex, but the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are over 19,000 same-sex married couples in Pennsylvania.

June 20, 2020

Unless there is evidence to the contrary, the family courts in Pennsylvania assume that co-parents can get along well enough to treat each other with respect and communicate with each other about their children. For example, most parenting plans stipulate that Dad will drive the children to Mom’s house at the end of his parenting time and will notify her by phone if he will be late.

June 19, 2020

If you and your spouse separated during the summer, then by August, you are probably just getting used to having your children with you only some of the time. Maybe you even have a temporary parenting plan in place.

June 19, 2020

Some couples have so little conflict related to the terms of their separation that they can have an uncontested divorce; they simply agree about how to divide their assets and submit their requests to the court, and the court dissolves the marriage according to the parties’ requests.

June 19, 2020

The first step in determining child custody is deciding what kind of parenting arrangement would be in the child’s best interests. The court starts with the assumption that the ideal situation is for each parent to be with the children about 50 percent of the time; some families are able to work things out so that each parent gets 182.5 days of parenting time per year.

June 19, 2020

After you get divorced, you do not need to seek your ex-spouse’s approval about every little aspect of parenting. Your ex is not there to shoot you a dirty look if you allow your children to have a second helping of dessert.

June 19, 2020

When your children spend part of their time with you and part of their time with your ex-spouse, it is easy to worry that your children like living with your ex more than they like living with you. Maybe your ex has a swimming pool and a PlayStation, while you live in an apartment that is barely big enough for your child to stretch out on the couch and play video games on his phone.

June 18, 2020

Child support is no ordinary debt. If you are in over your head with consumer debts or business debts, you have plenty of options for how to pay those debts, or not to pay them, as the case may be. Some people dodge bill collectors until the statute of limitations expires for their debts. Others file for bankruptcy as often as they can.

June 18, 2020

Almost all couples who divorce when their children are minors find that agreeing on a co-parenting schedule and a framework for child-related decision making after the divorce is much more challenging than dividing the couple’s financial assets in an equitable way.

June 13, 2020

Unless you are a survivor of domestic violence, you might wonder why people wait so long to leave abusive marriages. Many times, it is because they fear that the violence will get worse if they try to leave.