A guide to the perplexed When couples get divorced they are required to identify marital property and non-marital property. Many individuals don’t know what makes property marital and therefore, how they may unintentionally make a non-marital asset marital.
What is a Criminal Gang?
A draconian Senate bill aims at overreach to attack immigrants and allies While everyone has been watching the series of tweets since January 20th, Congress has been working quietly to change certain language with the hope of a presidential signature to make them new law. So far, there is no new law in place but the bills being proposed are scary to think about.
Mediation & Your Family
An alternative to courts Sometimes costly litigation can be avoided with mediation. Especially in family law related matters, mediation could be key to ensure that the issues involving your family are decided by your family. Mediation is a process of resolving disputes outside of the courtroom. A third-party neutral, often a lawyer or retired judge, will attempt to facilitate fruitful conversations between the parties to find common ground, highlight that ground, and hopefully create an environment which will lend itself to a settlement. An important factor of mediation is that it is not the mediator’s job to create the settlement. […]
Locked & Loaded
Identity Theft Revisited In the wake of the recent Equifax data breach, I thought I’d update and republish my article on identity theft from earlier this year. Identity theft is becoming a greater concern as our personal information becomes easier for thieves to access. While you can’t stop someone from hacking your employer’s or your favorite retailer’s data centers, there are things that you can do to reduce the likelihood of having your information stolen and minimize the potential losses if a theft occurs.
Locked & Loaded
Identity Theft Revisited In the wake of the recent Equifax data breach, I thought I’d update and republish my article on identity theft from earlier this year. Identity theft is becoming a greater concern as our personal information becomes easier for thieves to access. While you can’t stop someone from hacking your employer’s or your favorite retailer’s data centers, there are things that you can do to reduce the likelihood of having your information stolen and minimize the potential losses if a theft occurs.
Modifying Child Support
Calculating child support and modifying child support are two difficult concepts that tend to invoke a bit of confusion. To simplify and define each, this article first discusses how child support is calculated and then how child support can be modified.
How Can My Charity & I Both Benefit from My Gift?
While many same-sex couples have done some estate planning, few have truly created an estate plan as a couple. For example, most people name a beneficiary on their retirement accounts or insurance policies, but fail to name a back up or contingent beneficiary. As I tell my clients, it is important to have a back up just in case it’s a tie!
Domestic Violence-How to Protect Yourself
When law enforcement, government agencies, and people generally think of domestic abuse an image of a heterosexual couple is immediately cast. It’s traditionally assumed that the abuser is the male partner and the victim is the female partner. The ugly truth is that domestic violence occurs at similar rates among LGBTQ as heterosexual people. According to 2012 Center for American Progress study, one in four same-sex couples have experienced domestic violence– the same for heterosexual females.
Cancellation of Removal
When a person is able to reside in the US without being caught by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) officers for at least ten years, they are eligible for cancellation of removal as a nonimmigrant. This means that they can apply for permanent resident status before the Immigration Court if they can demonstrate several things:
First Comes Marriage Equality, Then Comes… Divorce Equality?
Everyone has the right to marry which means everyone also has the right to divorce. The divorce process for same-sex couples is identical to that of a heterosexual couple. And for each family there are different circumstances, causes, and results that lead them to divorce. A divorcing couple falls into to broad categories: divorcing with an agreement or divorcing with a judge order.