10 Things you not to say (or do), and that WILL jeopardize your case

10. Never refer to your holdings as your hidden assets.
9. Never show up late (or early) for a court appearance with a hangover.
8. Never telephone your ex’s attorney and tell him/her off.
7. Never bribe the kids into testifying against your ex.
6. Never throw a fit in court.
5. Never act in a threatening or inappropriate manner in front of your
ex’s attorney.
4. Never toss out a pickup line to the Judge.
3. Never have a wild party on your custodial weekends.
2. Never lose or destroy your important paperwork.
1. Never say, “I’ll never get through this.”

Source: Divorcemag.com

Blog recommendation #3

Diana Skaggs is a well known family law practitioner in Louisville, Kentucky. Her blog, the Divorce Law Journal, on which she blogs about family law matters, as well as legal issues of wider interest, is a must read for any family law lawyer, or anyone else interested in family law issues.

Kids, television and the internet

Anyone who is a parent justifiably worries these days about how much time their children spend watching television, surfing the web or consuming other forms of media, as well as what they are seing or hearing while in the process. If you’re divorced or separated, your concerns may be heightened if you and your spouse haven’t discussed and agreed upon appropriate parameters for and limitations on what your children are allowed to watch, read and listen to. What can you do if your spouse has a more lax attitude toward your child’s “media habits” or worse, has no standards at all? This excellent article from The Step Family Life offers some useful suggestions.

New Jersey approves civil unions

The New Jersey legislature has passed a bill allowing homosexual civil unions. Governor Corzine has said that he will sign the bill. The Newark Star Ledger has this report.

More on managing holiday stress for divorced and blended families

I don’t want to keep beating the same horse, but while fiddling around with sdome Google searches, I can across another pretty good article regarding ways in which divorced couples and blended families can better manage the extra stresses that the holidays cause with respect to visitng time with the kids. I encourage you to check out the website, The Stepfamily Life. There’s a lot of good stuff there. Check out the article, entitled “Surviving the Blended Family Holiday,” in its entirety below the fold.

Common law marriage in Pennsylvania

Efefctive January 1, 2005, Pennsylvania abolished common law marriage by statute on a propspective basis. This means that the statute only applies going forward, and does not preclude a couple from establishing the existence of a common law marriage if they can prove that the marriage was entered into before January 1, 2005. This article from Divorcenet.com sets forth a fairly good discussion of what you must show to prove the existence of a common law marriage as a legal matter. In practice this is a fairly stringent standard and can be difficult to prove. As a result, I strongly encourage those who wish to benefit from the legal incidents of marriage to get a marriage license and have a legally valid ceremony performed.

Source: Divorcenet.com

More on hidden assets

A few weeks ago I posted about what some perceive to be an increase in the incidence of divorcing spouses to hide assets to avoid having them distributed during divorce proceedings. This post from the Chicago Family Law Blog further addresses the issue, focusing on the ways in which persons typically try and hide assets, and suggesting ways to avoid this trap in the first place, as well as how to try and locate hidden assets after the fact.

Who gets to claim the kids on their tax return?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions in my practice. Fortunately, the Family Law Taxation Blog has a very helpful article that explains the whys and wherefores of when and to what extent a non-custodial parent can claim a child as a dependent on his or her federal income tax return.

Source: Family Law Taxation Blog (familylawtaxation.com)

Managing the stresses of a “blended family”

Time Magazine recently published this article that addresses the stresses that “blended families” must navigate on a day to day basis. These issues can become particularly thorny at this time of year, and the Time article pretty well hits the issues and offers some decent practical advise on managing them.

Source for the article: South Carolina Family Law Blog

Kansas court hears landmark sperm donor case

Via Grant Griffiths Kansas Family and Divorce Lawyer Blog, news comes of a potentially landmark case that was heard recently by the Kansas Supreme Court in which a sprem donor is challenging a provision of Kansas law that provides that donors do not have parentla rights unless that understanding has been reduced to writing. This is a development that all practitioners should watch with interest. With Grant’s blessing, I have reduced his post on this topic in its entirety below the fold.