The month of January is known as “divorce month”. Courts all over the country see an uptick in divorce filings in January. But, why do people get divorced in January more than any other month?
Website statistics show an 84% increase in searches related to divorce in
The Texas Supreme Court recently laid out what evidence is needed to prove up attorneys fees at trial. This case has been lauded as one of the most important cases to come out of the Texas Supreme Court. In Rohrmoos Venture v. UTSW DVA Healthcare LLP (578 S.W.3d 469), the Court addressed two different methods
We have seen this issue arise more than once lately: A party files a jury demand and pays the fee close to but before the 30-day deadline prior to trial; however, the e-filing system delays acceptance of the filing and payment until after the 30-day deadline, so the trial court denies the jury trial. We
The 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth issued a very important opinion today in a big win for O’Neil Wysocki’s appellate team on Michelle O’Neil and Karri Bertrand. The underlying order awarded Father the exclusive right to determine the children’s primary residence without regard to geographic restriction and gave each parent the independent right to make educational decisions. Mother filed to modify the orders and sought temporary orders in the modification suit. The trial court left the primary designation with Father but ordered the children to be enrolled in the Mother’s school district. In the intial hearing, the trial court made no finding of significant impairment, but later entered such finding.
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I enjoyed this article in the Washington Post by Lisa Bonos. Is it possible to get divorced and not hate your ex? A divorce necessarily comes after a lot of emotion and turmoil in the relationship. Sorting through that emotion and processing to the other side of the hatred river takes emotional maturity and “adulting” (as the new millennial lingo goes). The bottom line is that you have to love your kids more than you hate your ex. The article suggests six principles to keep in mind:
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What remedies are available to left-behind parents when a child is removed from the child’s primary country to another country?
There has been a recent uptick in the number of cases where a parent unilaterally removes a child from the child’s place of residence to another country in an attempt to be the child’s sole parent. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction (read the text of the treaty here) is a multilateral treaty ratified by 98 countries as of May 2018 providing an expeditious protocol for the return of a child unilaterally removed from the home country. The treaty requires the country to return a child when wrongfully removed in breach of the custody rights of the left-behind parent. The law of the state/country where the child resided determines the “custody rights”, which provides some fluidity in the laws.
Highly compensated individuals may have a laundry-list of deferred compensation awards going out over many years. Sometimes these compensation methods require negotiation transactions during a divorce that may or may not be legally permitted without full transparency. In most Texas courts, there are “standing orders” that automatically apply to every divorce that prohibit certain types of transactions. It is important to understand the marital assets in order to prevent the client from inadvertently violating one of these rules.
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Most business valuations in the divorce context are performed upon long-standing businesses. Valuing an early-stage start-up company poses some challenges. In 2013 the AICPA released a guide detailing a framework for assessing the six typical stages of a business’ lifecycle.
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Because business entities are often a large part of a marital estate for divorce, family lawyers and clients should understand how to review the report and spot issues even before hiring or relying upon the party’s own expert for review.
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Often in divorces, a spouse or both spouses may own a closely-held business. While the business itself may not be divisible in the divorce, the value of the business entity as an asset of the marital estate can be an important component to the division. There are several considerations at play when valuing a business entity for divorce purposes.
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