Category Archives: Family Law
Will an Ongoing Lawsuit Help Solve New York’s Foster Care Problem?
Earlier this summer, the Office of the New York City Public Advocate and 10 different children in foster care centers filed a class-action lawsuit against the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), the New York State Office of Children and Family Services and the OCFS’s acting commissioner. It’s the latest effort from public… Read More »
Methods of Enforcing Your Visitation Rights
In most child custody arrangements, one parent is typically granted primary custody of the children while the other has visitation rights or limited custody. However, it’s not out of the ordinary for the custodial parent to abuse the visitation rights of the other parent. They might refuse to allow their children to spend time with… Read More »
The Different Types of Adoptions
If you are looking into adoption, you have several different options depending on your current situation. Here are some of the various types of adoptions that you may consider: Adoptions through agencies. Agency adoptions involve placing a child with their adoptive parents through a public agency or a state-licensed private agency. Independent adoption. No agencies… Read More »
What Legal Requirements Must Be Fulfilled Before a Divorce?
Before a couple is able to file a divorce action in court and actually go through the divorce process, there are certain legal requirements that they must fulfill. These requirements include: Residency. A spouse that chooses to file for a divorce must have resided within the state they are filing for a certain period of… Read More »
Religion and Your Child Custody Arrangement
It’s somewhat common for one parent to change religions after going through a divorce. However, there are legal implications involving child custody and changing religion that must be considered. Religion is actually one of several considerations that courts will take into account when determining custody arrangements, alongside health care, residence, recreation and education. First, courts… Read More »
When Can You Modify a Child Support Agreement?
Whether you are paying or receiving child support, you may reach a point in the arrangement where you feel like it needs to be modified to reflect your current life situation. But when are the best times to attempt to modify your arrangement, and how do you go about doing so? Situations that may call… Read More »
Does Your Same-Sex Marriage Need a Prenuptial Agreement?
In a column last year after the landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down the prohibition of federal recognition of same-sex marriages, a Forbes writer drew an analogy between the coming wave of same-sex marriages and the significant uptick in marriages after World War II. Although noting that the numbers could potentially be similar, he observed… Read More »
What a Prenup Can Do — and What It Cannot
In a 2010 poll of divorce attorneys, 73 percent noted an increase in the use of prenuptial agreements, in addition to some surprising trends related to these documents. The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers conducted the poll with its 1,600 members, 52 percent of whom noted that women were increasingly the ones requesting a prenup…. Read More »
Child Custody and Support Issues Specific to Same-Sex Partners
With all the changes in recent years to the legal status of same-sex couples, it can be difficult to understand the exact nature of your rights as a couple and, if you have children, your rights as parents. What’s true in one state may not be in another, and what you might assume would be… Read More »
Child Support Deviations
Federal law mandates that all states create a uniform formulaic system for determining support obligations for children within their jurisdictions. While states are not required to adopt any particular formula, most choose one of two common systems. In New York, child support obligations are based on a fixed percentage of the payor’s income less certain… Read More »