As the titles give away, this blog addresses and expands on these intricate and generally hard battled-over elements of a divorce and separation action: DC Alimony: Upon issuance of a divorce decree or order of legal separation, the court when “just and proper” may enter an order for payment of alimony as well. The order may be indefinite or for a certain designated period dictated by the relevant facts and circumstances. In short, the court will determine the amount and the duration of payment of alimony. The order may be nunc pro tunc to the date of filing of the
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Archives for Family Law
CHILD SUPPORT MEASURED BY CHILD CUSTODY
DC Child support obligations are correlated and connected with the award of child custody. They are inversely proportional. That is, increase in child physical custody reduces the child support obligations. Thus it is beneficial to litigate the child support and child custody matters simultaneously to both potentially reduce the child support obligations and also to increase the physical time spent with your child. In the District, the award of child custody may take one of the following forms but it is always based on the best interest of the child criteria: (i) sole legal custody; (ii) sole physical custody; (iii)
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DC Post-Adoption Contact Agreements/Contracts
Often times in contested adoptions the biological parents as well as all involved biological relatives should balance the litigation strategy in light of the Adoption Reform Amendment Act (“ARA”) § 101 which established enforceability of post-adoption contact agreements between biological parents, other birth relatives, adoptive parents, and adoptees (if they are 14 or older) for first time in the District of Columbia. The contact agreement is tantamount to a custom made contract tailored to terms and conditions dictates by negotiating parties generally governing “contact” between the child and his or her biological family after the adoption is finalized with specific
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