Family Law
Child Support Enforcement in Tennessee: Liens for Child Support Arrears
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…
Read MoreShared Parenting in Tennessee Child Custody Cases
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…
Read MoreHaving a Conversation with Your Child’s Teacher about Your Divorce
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…
Read MoreHow to Prepare for Divorce
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…
Read More5 Difficult Things to Accept about Divorce
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…
Read MoreHow Vacations and Summer Travel Impact Parenting Plans
This is the time of year when parents start planning vacations and make plans for the summer months. When you are going through a divorce, or after the divorce is finalized, the parenting plan agreement is an important document that will govern the communications between the two co-parents. Even when the co-parents have a relatively…
Read MoreIs Your Former Spouse Unemployed or Under-employed to Avoid Paying Child Support?
The adversarial divorce is over and your former spouse has been ordered to pay child support for the child you have together; however, you believe that they are not making an effort to find a job because they want to avoid paying child support. What can a primary residential parent do when the alternate residential…
Read MoreAlcohol and Drug Abuse Can Affect Alimony Payments in Tennessee
Alimony, sometimes called spousal support, is awarded to a spouse by a judge. Unless you and your spouse have worked out a plan in your Marital Dissolution Agreement, the process of awarding alimony is an entirely subjective one: a judge is not forced to award alimony to anyone. However, if you file under certain grounds,…
Read MoreSubsidized Permanent Guardianship of a Minor in Tennessee
The foster care system can be a challenging and heartbreaking way for a child to grow up. Every day, young people age out of the system – that is, they grow up to the age of majority and are then left to function on their own without a family to support them, nurture them or…
Read MoreThe Supreme Court Will Hear Same-Sex Marriage Arguments on April 28
Tennessee has had a ban on same-sex marriage since 1996, and voters approved a constitutional ban in 2006 – but the future of this ban might be in question. On April 28th, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear 2.5 hours of arguments on same-sex marriage in four cases from Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and Tennessee. The…
Read MoreThe Future of Sonya McCaul
When David and Kim Hodgins agreed to foster a one-year old Sonya McCaul back in 2005, they could not have known how long she would stay. After all, young Sonya had been brought across state lines from Nebraska by her babysitter, and her father was in and out of jail. But even though the Hodgins…
Read MoreThe Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act and Relocation
Families with children face some different legal challenges, especially when one parent no longer resides in the same state. To help make the process easier for parents and for the courts, Tennessee (along with 48 other states) adopted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), which grants exclusive jurisdiction rights to the home…
Read MoreTennessee Given a “D” for Child Custody Laws by National Parents Organization
The National Parents Organization is a 501(3)(c) dedicated to promoting shared parenting throughout the country. Every year, the organization issues a Report Card that assesses the states’ laws as they relate to parenting plans in child custody. In the group’s 2014 Report Card, issued this November, Tennessee and 22 other states earned a “D.” The…
Read MoreJanuary is Considered National Divorce Month
Deciding to divorce is difficult enough for couple, especially those with children. For this reason, many couples choose to postpone their divorce until after the holidays have passed, which makes January a month with some of the highest divorce rates in Tennessee, according to ABC News. But getting divorced in January may not be the…
Read MoreWhat Is Collaborative Law?
Generally speaking, collaborative law is a form of alternative dispute resolution, and is a relatively new way of protecting legal clients’ needs. Instead of fighting a battle in a courtroom, two parties agree not to litigate, and instead allow their lawyers to serve as advocate partners. Its success in resolving conflicts in the areas of…
Read MoreCollege Funds and Divorce: The 529 Investment Plan
Divorce can often be hardest on your children. When you are drafting your divorce settlement, it is a good idea to provide for your children’s educational future in order to avoid conflict and confusion further down the road. In Tennessee, contributions to a college fund must be specified by a court order and voluntarily agreed…
Read MoreWhat Does “Contempt of Court” Actually Mean?
If you watch police procedurals or legal-based TV shows, you’ve probably heard a judge say “You’re out of order, Counselor” (or something along those lines) and then fine the attorney or the client for being in “contempt.” As a general rule, however, these types of shows don’t get the nuances of legal proceedings right, so…
Read MoreSpousal Support 101: Understanding Alimony in Solido
There are four categories of spousal support in Tennessee; alimony in solido, however, is a bit different from the rest of them. Often called “lump sum” alimony, this form of spousal support is the only one that: Can be paid all at once Can be paired in addition to other forms of alimony Does not…
Read MoreCustodial Interference vs. Denying Visitation Rights
A Tennessee woman made headlines in Arizona recently when she and her daughter were founded at a women’s shelter. The news stories claimed that the daughter was “reunited” with her father, and that he’s pressing charges of custodial interference. Custodial interference falls into the same part of the Tennessee Criminal Code as kidnapping, but they’re…
Read MoreAnswers To Your Frequently Asked Questions About Child Support
The rules regarding child support in Tennessee are pretty solid – but that doesn’t mean that the laws don’t change. As family lawyers, we know you have questions, and often those questions are the same from family to family. So we thought we should address some of the more common queries you have, to give…
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