Marriage comes with a great many benefits for most couples. Planning a life together is exciting, exploring the possibilities and dreaming about the future. The simple legal construct confers financial benefits as well – as the saying goes, “two can live as cheaply as one.” When you get married, expenses tend to go down and [...]
Stable marriages involve many different factors. Love, companionship, loyalty, children, growing together, and intimacy are just some of the many reasons people stay together. Finances are another important factor, and they can make – or break – a marriage. Today, we want to look at why unstable finances can keep unhappy couples together, and why [...]
Tennessee has four types of alimony. Before reviewing what issues can affect entitlement (or non-entitlement) to spousal support and the amount and length of spousal support, it’s important to understand these four types of possible alimony awards. The four types of Tennessee alimony support are set forth in Tennessee Code § 36-5-121: Rehabilitative alimony. This type [...]
When parents divorce, it’s natural to focus first on which parents will have physical and/or legal custody of their children. Once the custody status is resolved, the next step is determining which parent has the duty to pay child support and how much child support should be paid. The impact of children on divorce doesn’t [...]
In Tennessee, there are two types of custody. Legal custody affects long-term health and education decisions for your children. Physical custody determines which parent the child resides with and who supervises the child. Most parents share legal custody of their children and many parents share physical custody. Tennessee law requires that the parents (if they [...]
Parents are the natural (and legal) guardians of their children. This means they can decide the daily living issues for their children and the long-term issues. This includes making decisions about their health, well-being, religious upbringing, financial matters, and other issues. Sometimes, though, a parent is unable to function as a guardian. When one parent [...]
Many states in America have unusual marriage laws that are still on the books. While many of these laws aren’t enforced, there’s always the possibility they could be. As people move in and out of Tennessee, it’s helpful (and OK – it’s fun, too) to know what some of these odd laws are. Some of [...]
Guardianship is a legal arrangement in which a responsible authorized adult agrees to care for someone who can’t care for him or herself. Guardians are usually used for children who don’t have parents or don’t have capable parents, and for some adult children with special needs. Seniors may also need a guardian. When children need [...]
Often, after physical and legal custody rights have been established by a court order or a permanent parenting plan, one parent seeks to move. Sometimes the move is voluntary. Often, the parent moves because of the offer of a new or better job or due to educational opportunities. A parent may want to move if [...]
A recent report by CNBC revealed that millennials are now often asking their spouses to sign prenuptial agreements. The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) confirms that millennials are marrying later in life. Many have started careers and begun to accumulate assets. To protect their financial interests, they see prenuptial agreements as a remedy. The [...]
If you are a parent, just the thought of having your parental rights terminated could be a frightening thing, but in other cases it could be the first step to a whole new life for a child who has not had the love and care they deserve from their birth parents. Terminating a parent's rights [...]
As we have said so many times, divorce is basically the breaking of a contract. If there were a way to separate the high level of emotion that the divorce transaction stirs up, it would probably be a faster, easier process to work through. But divorce is not just about breaking a contract. Marriage represents [...]
There are many ways in which the payment of child support can be enforced, and federal law has created some uniform guidelines for enforcing child support payments. Tennessee's statutes for child support enforcement can be found here: T.C.A. § 36-5-901, and the Department of Human Services (DHS) is the state agency that is responsible for [...]
- Your divorce may have ended your marriage, but it did not end your relationship with your former spouse if you have young children together. The nature of your relationship will change, of course because now you are only partners in parenting your children. Family courts use the, "best interests of the child" [...]
Family law evolves and changes as families in the United States evolve and change – albeit at a much slower pace. In the past, judges leaned more toward granting sole custody of the child to the mother and visitation to the father. As times change and the way families are structured with regard to [...]
Telling your child’s teacher that you are going through a divorce might not be high on your list of priorities, but it should be. Whatever happens in your home has an impact on your child. If your family is going through a rough patch, your child may display behavior at school that is inconsistent with [...]
Couples who marry today have a roughly 40 to 50 percent chance of getting divorced, (for first marriages) so while divorce seems like something that happens to other people, many who are married may face it at some point. While going through a divorce is usually more traumatic than you think it will be and [...]
There will come a time when divorce gets real for you and things might be a bit more challenging than you had bargained for. Divorce can be adversarial and it will bring out aspects of your spouse’s character that you may not have seen before. When you agree to divorce and you set off on [...]
Adversarial, chaotic divorces are the stuff of legend these days. The sacred contract between two people is also a civil contract, which could be ended in a business-like manner, but that is rarely what happens. People’s emotions tend to rule the day in divorce unless the two decide to try a different approach. There are [...]
Summer time is when the predictable schedule during the school year floats away and chaos can break out, if you do not already have a parenting plan in place. Now that you are in separate households, it will virtually impossible to decide to take a spur-of-the-moment trip if you plan to bring the children along. [...]
