As part of a petition for dissolution of marriage, a petitioner may ask that the court order that his or her name be changed. In many cases, this request is made by a woman asking that her name be restored to her pre-marriage name. For some, especially those without children…
Often, when a person comes into our office they assume that every family law dispute ends up with a judge handing down a verdict, after a public hearing. In family law, most of our cases involve some of our clients’ most intimate personal and financial concerns. As such, in most…
The current RCW 26.09.030 requires that parties wait until ninety days after the filing of a petition before a decree of dissolution can be entered. There is a bill currently under consideration in the state Senate, seeking to change the waiting period from ninety days to one year. According to…
Once a family law action is filed with the court, some clients are surprised to learn that they have the ability to obtain information from the other party, and even third parties, which is otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain. Other clients are surprised when they receive a hefty document…
Most parents in the process of creating or modifying a parenting plan know that they will have to determine a residential schedule for their children. While this is obviously a very important part of the plan, there are other not-so-obvious considerations that should be considered (and potentially discussed with your…
As part of most divorce property distributions, at least one piece of real property has to be distributed. For many people, dissolving their marriage is the first time, in a long time, that they have had to think about their real estate holdings as more than a place they call…
As many of us know, the days of parents’ financial support of their children ending on the child’s eighteenth birthday is largely a thing of the past. These days, whether divorced or not, many people are supporting their adult children through college or technical school (at least). In divorced families,…
Child support is meant to provide support for minor children based on the economic circumstances of that child’s parents. Sometimes after an order of child support is entered a child changes age brackets, gets close to graduating from high school , or other significant enough changes in circumstances occur, that…
In the article “Navigating the Gray Divorce with Dignity,” attorney Andrea Vacca, discusses the increase in what she refers to as “gray” divorces and the issues facing clients in this type of divorce. Gray divorces, Vacca explains, are divorces between people age 50 and over. Vacca says that while overall…
Lawyers are often quoted encouraging their clients to “get things in writing.” In a recent New York Times article, “Kramer.com vs. Kramer.com,” Pamela Paul uses a similar directive for divorced parents: Paul advises that parents use emails and texts in the place of verbal communication. In family law, as Paul…