October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month when we come together to celebrate individuals with Down Syndrome and recognize their unique contributions. It’s also a time to raise awareness about the challenges they and their families face in navigating the future. What is a Special Needs Trust? When there is a special needs child in the …
Having an estate plan in place ensures your and your family’s needs for the future, but it is particularly important if you have a child with special needs. You have spent your life and resources dedicated to caring for your special needs child. However, once your child turns 18, the criteria for getting essential benefits …
You have worked hard to build a nest egg for your future and a legacy for those you love and care about. But without planning how your estate will be administered after you are gone, these assets could be distributed by the courts in ways you would not have chosen and your assets will be …
While divorce is never easy, divorcing a spouse with a disability adds another level of emotional, financial, and legal complexity to the process. It will require a more finely balanced approach that considers your disabled spouse’s needs and future and also your own legal and financial welfare. The court will take extra effort to ensure …
When spouses go their separate ways in North Carolina, they must first reconcile a number of complex issues before they will be granted a divorce. One of these is how they will divide the assets and debt they acquired while they were married. In North Carolina, marital property division is done by “equitable distribution.” While …
In Virginia, stepparents are not typically liable for child support of their stepchildren after a divorce – unless they have legally adopted them. If you have adopted a stepchild, you are now considered the child’s legal parent and subject to all the rights and obligations of a parent – including paying child support if you …
If you and your spouse have decided to part ways, you have some legal options in North Carolina. In order to seek a divorce, you and your spouse must first have been separated for a year. Once you and your spouse have been separated for a minimum of one year, you can then file for …
At its best, successful co-parenting after a divorce is the collaborative and cooperative effort to raise children together to ensure their physical and emotional well-being. If you have been through a divorce, you know that isn’t always easy, especially with the chaos of facing a new school year. The experienced Tampa divorce attorneys at Melone …
According to reports by the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, nearly 1 in 8 children in the United States live in a household where one parent has a substance abuse disorder. For parents who are divorcing and trying to gain custody, substance abuse, along with many other issues, can complicate the divorce …
Child custody is typically one of the most challenging aspects of any divorce. While issues like marital property division and spousal support can lead to heated exchanges, custody matters are considered by the court with the utmost importance. Courts are heavily invested in child custody decisions, ensuring they are in the “best interests of the …
Coupled with all the emotional and legal complexities of a divorce in Florida is the financial disentanglement and division of your marital property. And this can significantly impact your taxes and other financial matters. If you are navigating a divorce, you will want to understand how marital property division, child support, and spousal support have …
Divorce isn’t just the emotional and physical end of a marriage. It’s also the dissolution of two deeply intertwined financial lives. You have probably amassed a home, vehicles, a mortgage, credit card bills, retirement accounts, and investments during your marriage. And the law says that before you can settle your divorce, you and your spouse …
Of all the issues you may face in your divorce, alimony, also known as spousal support or maintenance, might be one of the most contentious. The topic of alimony often generates strong emotions, aggravating an already volatile situation. By ensuring that a lower-earning or non-earning spouse receives essential financial support after a divorce, alimony can …
If you are going through divorce, you know it is challenging. When one or both spouses are military service members, there are additional legal complexities. While civilian divorces are regulated by individual state law, federal and international laws often intersect with state law in a military divorce. What are the Hogue Cases? The Hogue cases …
No matter how forward-thinking we’ve become as a society, sometimes the law is slow to catch up. For instance, in Florida, when an unmarried couple parted company after having a child, the courts historically declared the mother the natural guardian. If the father wanted to play a part in the child’s upbringing, he had to …
Historically, parenting duties fell to the mother. Dad would pack off every morning, leaving Mom to navigate heart, home, and parenting. After work, Dad would come home and relax. Mom? She still had dinner to cook, kids to bathe, homework to check, and lunches to pack. Fortunately, those gender-specific roles are being pushed aside for …
Going through a divorce is an emotional process that often leads to regrettable mistakes. These mistakes can make your divorce more expensive and damage your relationship with your children and other family members. With so much at stake—such as asset division, spousal support, and child custody—it’s crucial to avoid common errors. To help, we have …
Summertime is around the corner, and keeping to agreed-upon visitation schedules can be challenging when working around the end of the school year, summer camps and activities, and separate vacation plans. Unfortunately, when summer temperatures soar, co-parents often find it hard to keep their cool with each other. At Melone Hatley, P.C., our experienced Charlotte …
