Family law matters such as divorces and custody disputes are deeply personal and among life’s most challenging moments. Don’t go it alone, seek help to navigate both the emotional and legal aspects of life’s storms.
Due to my more than 15 years of experience in family law, I understand that every family’s circumstances are different and my approach is tailored to the specifics of your family situation. I have handled a wide range of family law issues including divorce, alimony, marital property distribution, child support, visitation, paternity and emergency custody.
Divorce
A divorce can be either a welcome or unwelcome reorganization of family life. In most cases, especially marriages that have lasted more than ten years, it is a major challenge. I help clients through contested and uncontested divorces, offering legal representation and practical counsel.
Whether your divorce is amicable or contentious, I am here to advocate for your interests and help you move forward with a plan, a clear-eyed understanding of the range of possible outcomes and of the strengths and weaknesses of your case and your spouse’s case.
Child Custody
Your children matter to you and they deserve the time you need with them to be an important part of their development. I assist parents in creating parenting plans that prioritize the well-being of their children. And in cases where you can’t agree what’s best for your children, I help you put your best foot forward in court.
Whether I’m advocating for you either inside or outside of the courtroom, I focus on solutions that create stability for your kids in the midst of the familial storm. Given how important your kids are to you, don’t roll the dice on advocating for them yourself. Proceed with the assistance of an experienced family law attorney who can advocate for what you believe is best for your children under the particular facts of your case and in light of the realities of what a Maryland Judge might decide.
Child Support
Whether you or your ex will pay child support and how much can be a loaded topic. In order to plan, you need to understand that the calculation takes into account the incomes of each parent, who pays for particular expenses for the child(ren), how many overnights each parent has with the child(ren) and other factors.
As of this writing, in cases where the combined parents’ incomes are equal to or less than $30,000 (thirty thousand dollars) per month then the court has to conduct a legally-mandated calculation called the Maryland Child Support Guidelines. The amount recommended by this calculation is legally presumed to be in the best interests of the child or children and therefore is ordered in the vast majority of cases.
In a minority of cases, however, Maryland Judges order child support that is either higher or lower than the guidelines recommendation when they find, based on the particulars of the case, that the recommended amount is unjust or inappropriate. A skilled and experienced family law attorney is especially helpful if your case is a good candidate for deviation either above or below what the guidelines recommend.
If the combined gross monthly incomes of the parents is above $30,000 then the Judges can use their discretion in determining the child support; sometimes they use a software that extrapolates above the guidelines; sometimes they rule based on what they think is best for the children given the overall financial situation of the family and what the children are accustomed to. As you can imagine, legal advocacy is especially important in above-guidelines cases.
Some of the most challenging child support cases are those in which one of the parents’ main or sole source of income is a business that they solely own and control. In such cases proving the income of that business-owner parent can be challenging and may require expert testimony. If you’re the business-owner parent then you need to understand how to convincingly show the Judge what your self-employment income is which is defined in Maryland law as “gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses required to produce income.” Again, in such cases legal counsel is crucial.
If child support has already been ordered in your case then I can help you to either enforce it or, if there has been “a material change in circumstances” since support was ordered, to modify it either downwards or upwards.
Paternity
Being found to legally be the father of a child means you have both the rights and responsibilities that come with that title. Whether you’re a man seeking to have the court order genetic testing because the mother won’t agree to it, a mother attempting to prevail against a man denying he’s the father or are in the minority of cases where you have a shot at disestablishing paternity, proceed with the advice of counsel.
Alimony
Spousal support (often referred to as alimony) is almost always a heated topic. There are two basic types of alimony: rehabilitative alimony which is temporary support to help the financially-dependent spouse get back on their feet and indefinite alimony which has no specified end date and is most commonly ordered in long-term marriages with a significant disparity in income. Each type of alimony, in turn, can be either modifiable or non-modifiable.
Whether you might be on the hook to pay alimony or need to be paid alimony, I can help. In Maryland alimony is not determined based on any kind of standard calculation, instead the Judge determines it based on a number of factors such as the financial needs and resources of the parties, the standard of living during the marriage, the duration of the marriage, the contributions of each spouse to the family, the circumstances leading to the breakup, any agreements between the parties and the age and health of each party. To order indefinite alimony the Judge has to first find either that “due to age, illness, infirmity, or disability, the party seeking alimony cannot reasonably be expected to make substantial progress toward becoming self-supporting” or “even after the party seeking alimony will have made as much progress toward becoming self-supporting as can reasonably be expected, the respective standards of living of the parties will be unconscionably disparate.”
Marital Property Division
Dividing marital property is often one of the most complex aspects of divorce. Maryland follows the “equitable distribution” model, which means property isn’t split equally but according to what the Judge deems fair under the circumstances. Again, because there isn’t any standard formula for the division of property, how skillfully your case is presented matters a great deal.
Collaborative Divorce
If your divorce is likely uncontested or there are only a few minor areas of disagreement then we should discuss the option of Collaborative Divorce, an alternative dispute resolution method I am trained in where each party, their lawyers and sometimes other professionals work as a team towards a solution that works for everyone and avoids a costly courtroom battle with an unpredictable outcome.
No matter the legal family conflict you’re facing, Navigate Law Firm can help. Let’s find out if you and this firm are a good fit. Contact Navigate Law Firm.
