New Year’s resolutions

I am not ordinarily a New Year’s resolution maker. I do think, however, that the start of a new year provides us with an opportunity to assess where we are, how we’re doing and how we might do better. Dawn Miller at The Step Family Life offers some thoughts on New Year’s resolutions for stepfamilies.

Divorce and joint debt

Very often during the course of or after a divorce, one or the other spouse has a question about how joint debt is managed. Many people have some misconceptions about what their responsibilities are for joint debts, even when those debts are specifically addressed in a settlement agreement or final divorce decree. The Federal Trade Commission has published this article that helps to explain spouses’ respective responsibilities for jointly incurred debts.

Buffalo Law Journal Article on Law Blogs

I usually try to avoid posting on things that are mostly “inside baseball,” but this article on law blogs (or what some like to call “blawgs”), which I found through a link at Nicole Black’s blog “Sui Generis,” caught my eye. I recommend the article to anyone lawyers who are bloggers or are interested in blogging, as well as to anyone else interested in the growing phenomenon of lawyers who blog.

Source for post: Sui Generis

Blog recommendation #4

It is an unavoidable fact that many family law issues also involve tax law questions, and very often these tax questions are rather complex. I highly recommend the Family Law Taxation Blog to any family law attorneys, or their clients, who are confronting tax related questions. The blog, which is updated frequently, provides a wealth of helpful information.

Farewell to Southern Appeal

As I noted on the Criminal Defense Blog, one of my favorite blogs, Southern Appeal, is shutting down. I wish Southern Appeal’s publisher, Steve Dillard, the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Telling your children about your divorce

One of the hardest, and often most heartbreaking, things about ending a marriage comes when its time to tell your children that you and your spouse have decided to divorce. The words do not come easy, and the answers to their questions are harder still. This article from Divorce Magazine contains some helpful suggestions for managing this discussion, and its aftermath, with your kids.

Mediators without borders

Victoria Pynchon at the Settle It Now Bl AR G has a post about a newly launched outfit known as Mediators Without Borders. I strongly urge you to have a look at Victoria’s site, as well as the information on Mediators Without Borders. I am a strong believer in alternative dispute resolution, and these are two fine resources.

Source: Divorce Law Journal

Questions to consider before marriage

Today’s New Yoork Times contains an article relaying the collective wisdom of an unidentified group of “relationship experts” concerning various questions that couples considering marriage ought to discuss before making the commitment. Without any comment (for now) the experts list follows:

Collaborative divorce – the team approach

My initial training as a lawyer was as a litigator, and for a long time that training colored how I analyzedmy clients legal issues and also impacted the advice that I gave. As family law practice has come to dominate my practice, I have realized that the adversary, litigation oriented way of practice is often, and perhaps most often, not the best for the client. The movement towards collaborative divorce represents a recognition that, where a family is involved, litigation and adversary proceedings may be more salt in the wounds than oil on the water. This article from the newsletter of the Young Lawyers’ Division of the American Bar Association is a pretty good introductory primer on the subject. I expect to post a good bit more on this very important subject in the future.

Source: ABA Young Lawyers’ Division, via Grant Griffiths’ Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer

Avoiding arguments over time with the kids

I recognize that I have posted a good bit about cooperating and coping through the holidays, but, on the principle that sometimes more really is more, I am inclined to pass along any helpful advice on this most difficult of subjects as I can. So, below is some very good advice from the blog Indiana Family Law: