I’m ordered to pay child support from the day she filed but what about all those other payments I’ve made?

Question: I’m forced to pay child support back to the date we separated, even though I continued to pay the mortgage, utilities, medical/dental/car insurance, etc. Is there any way I can request relief for those four months of payments I’ve made on other necessities?

Can my wife keep my children from spending the night with me if I live with an alcoholic?

Question: My wife and I have been separated for a while and I am living with my parents while she stays in the marital home. My wife will not let me have my daughter spend the night with me since my father is an alcoholic and she doesn’t want the …

Can we transfer properties we both own into one party’s name?

Question: My wife and I are separated right now in the process of getting a divorce. We own two houses together; she is living in one with our kids and I am in the other. How can we get each other to be legally responsible for only the house the …

Enforcing verbal agreements made in mediation

Question: My wife and I are separated and we verbally agreed to follow the parenting plan in the mediation agreement. In the hopes of having an amicable divorce, I agreed to not have our young daughter for overnights unless I am with my parents per her demands. It was a …

Handling Debt Not Addressed In Settlement Agreement

Question: We have a signed and finalized settlement agreement. My ex wife made arrangements prior to the separation agreement being signed that allowed her to pay off a debt to a dance instructor in monthly installments. My name was never mentioned nor on the invoices. Turns out she’s not paying …

Since my wife moved out of state while I was deployed, shouldn’t she pay the transportation costs for my parenting time?

Question: My wife just left me and filed for separation while I was deployed overseas by the military. She moved herself and the kids to another state about six hours away, and she now wants me to drive halfway to meet her for visitation. I thought that I had read …

How Do You Talk To Your Kids About Divorce?

An interesting study showed that 67 percent of the nation’s divorce lawyers have clients ask them for advice on how to discuss divorce and separation with their children, according to research by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). The survey also reveals that 74 percent of respondents say the …

Is moving out grounds for emancipation?

Among the Ask a Divorce Lawyer questions answered today by Cordell & Cordell, P.C. attorneys: Is my stepson moving out and having a full-time job considered emancipation so I would no longer have to pay child support? Can I get child custody without filing for a legal separation or divorce?

Ask a Divorce Lawyer: Can parental rights be terminated before a baby is born?

Question: I am pregnant with a man’s child that I am no longer dating. We mutually agreed that he will have no parental rights of the child in terms of finances, visitation, custody, etc. I am trying to find out what the process would be to make this “separation” legal. …

How Do We Untie Our Legal Union?

Question: My wife does not work, but she lives at home and helps with the kids while using up the savings and running up large credit card bills. On top of all of that, she has been running around on me. We both have agreed that we just want to …