Part 1: Custody Battles for LGBTQIA+ Parents Every parent involved in a custody battle harbors at least some fear that they may lose custody of their child, no matter how unlikely it is. This fear is even greater for LGBTQIA+ parents, and understandably so. While acceptance for LGBTQIA+ individuals may…
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Men’s Health During Separation
June is Men’s Health Month, and after a messy separation you may imagine that health is not a priority. To help raise awareness of the topic, here are a few tips to get the mind and body back on the right track. After all, it can take a lot of…
National Pizza Party Day – Do It for the Kids
We’ve written before on the importance of establishing some new routines and traditions after (or during) a tough separation and divorce. Sometimes if you focus on the simple things it can make the difficult and complicated seem easier to deal with, especially in a contentious custody case. The courts believe…
Equitable Distribution Judgments Are Not Modifiable
Dozier v. Dozier, 2022-NCCOA-307 (unpublished) (2022) In North Carolina, an Equitable Distribution (ED) judgment is a final court-ordered distribution of the marital assets. Unlike child support, alimony, or custody, these are not modifiable upon showing the court that there has been a substantial change in circumstances. A rule 60…
Alimony and Imputation of Defendant’s Income
Davidson v. Davidson, 2022-NCCOA-267 (unpublished) In North Carolina, alimony orders are modifiable upon showing the court that there has been a substantial change in circumstances for either party. In doing so, the trial court ought to revisit many of the factors that justified the original alimony order. The main…
Who Pays for a Business Valuation?
Maiwald v. Maiwald, 2022-NCCOA-321 (unpublished) (2022) In North Carolina, Equitable Distribution (ED) cases will classify, value, and distribute marital assets in a fair way. One major component is classification, as separate property (typically property not acquired during the marriage) is not distributed. If a party owns a business, however,…
National Mental Health Awareness Month
Laurel Harmon, Legal Assistant May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health problems affect not just those with diagnosed mental illnesses. One in five adults will experience a mental health problem every year and one in twenty-five adults will experience a serious mental illness. When you are going through…
Fair Market Value and Equitable Distribution
In the previous blog, we covered appraisal as a method of valuation of property in the context of Equitable Distribution in a separation. Equitable Distribution (ED) in North Carolina is a legal process by which the court divides the marital property between the parties. The three steps in an ED…
Home Appraisals and Equitable Distribution
Equitable Distribution in North Carolina is a legal process by which the court divides the marital property between the parties. It involves three steps: 1) classifying the property as marital or separate (or some mix); 2) assigning value to the property; and 3) distributing the property in an equitable manner…
Joe Exotic: Divorce and Finding Love in Prison
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic and the star of the Netflix hit Tiger King, is set to marry a former fellow inmate, John Graham, pending his divorce from current husband, Dillon Passage. Joe was convicted of a failed murder-for-hire plot that targeted his archenemy, Carole Baskin. Baskin was also featured…