Aubrey Family Law

Many divorcing parents believe that the mother will receive a larger share of the child’s custodial time in their divorce. This was once the case – a combination of the tender years doctrine present in many states and traditional gender roles in the 20th century typically led to custody orders that granted mothers full custody…

There is no “one size fits all” answer to this question. Like many other questions surrounding divorce, the answer is “it depends.” How long it will take you to complete your divorce depends largely on the type of divorce you choose and the issues at hand to be determined. Uncontested vs. Contested Divorce An uncontested divorce can…

Finance-related conflicts are one of the top reasons why American couples divorce. For the most part, all financial actions an individual takes during his or her marriage are actions made on behalf of the couple. This means that if one party accrues debt, the other can be liable for it. If you know your marriage is…

You might have heard that an individual’s second, third, or later marriage is more likely to end in divorce than his or her first marriage. This is true. People enter their second and later marriages with different perspectives than they had in their first marriages. They can see red flags and conflicts more easily than…

It is not uncommon for a divorced parent to wonder if he or she can claim his or her child as a dependent on his or her tax returns. Being able to claim a child as a dependent can help a lot at tax time: each dependent means a deduction of $4,050 on the filer’s…

A divorce can be difficult on every member of a family. Children, even very young children, are perceptive to their parents’ conflicts and can feel stressed about the changes to their lives that come with a divorce. The reality of potentially having to move, no longer seeing each parent every day, possibly meeting their parents’…

We live in a world where our online interactions are as frequent and as meaningful as those we conduct face to face. Many of these interactions take place on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which allow us to share our thoughts and images of our lives with hundreds, even thousands of followers. If your…

You have probably heard the old adage, “men are from Mars, women are from Venus.” Although individuals of both sexes have much greater freedom to deviate from gender norms than they had in previous decades, gender still plays a role in how many individuals move through the events of their lives, particularly those related to…

In an ideal world, couples who realize their marriages cannot be saved would divorce amicably, working together to develop timesharing arrangements that allow them both to maintain quality relationships with their children and continue to co-parent effectively in the years that follow. But we do not live in an ideal world, we live in a…

After a divorce, it is not uncommon to want to “start fresh” on the next chapter of your life by relocating to a new city or state. You might also feel pulled to relocate due to a job opportunity, a new relationship, or a familial obligation. Whatever your reason for wanting to move out of…

When you are working through a divorce, there are a lot of issues that will come up in court or during your mediation or collaborative divorce sessions. This is because in order to fairly divide your property and determine an appropriate child custody arrangement for your family, facts about your income, assets, physical and mental…

A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) is a court order that is used to divide a retirement plan or pension among a divorcing couple. This is in recognition of their joint ownership of the asset and ensures that each partner comes away from the divorce with his or her fair share of the money that…

During the divorce process, you will likely meet many professionals. The professionals you meet depend on the circumstances of your divorce and the demands that accompany them, such as the need to appraise a small business or a rental property. Couples who choose collaborative divorces often have fewer interactions with outside professionals than those who…

When you get married, you vow to spend the rest of your life with your partner, for better or for worse. Nearly all couples taking these vows truly believe that they will uphold them and have every intention of remaining together for the rest of their lives. But current divorce statistics say otherwise. You might…

If you are considering a divorce, you probably know that there are a few ways to complete the process. You can complete your divorce through litigation, which means bringing your case to the courtroom to have it decided by a judge. You can also complete it through one of two methods of alternative dispute resolution:…

Social media plays a pivotal role in most of our lives. It is where we find out about friends' and loved ones' engagements, promotions, new babies, and other milestone events. It is also where many of us seek comfort from friends in our times of need. Although you are probably feeling difficult emotions like anger,…

Tax time is here again, and if you are recently divorced or currently going through the divorce process, you might be wondering whether you can file for divorce jointly or singly. As long as you were still married on December 31st of the previous year, you can file your taxes jointly with your spouse. For…

Religion and its role in a child's life can be a controversial topic. On the one hand, a parent wants to raise his or her child to make their own decisions about the “big” topics like God, death, and our moral duties as human beings. On the other, religion often provides the framework in which…

If you are considering filing for divorce and you are currently researching your options for how to divorce, you have likely read about collaborative law divorces. A collaborative divorce is a divorce where the couple determines the terms of their settlement entirely on their own, then works together to complete the divorce with guidance from…

Every divorce is unique. While one couple divorces because of infidelity, another divorces because they simply cannot agree about how to run their small business. A couple might have few assets and no children while another might have children, multiple real estate properties, significant assets, and a severely strained relationship. This latter couple's divorce would…

During the divorce process, one of the most important issues to determine is the couple's child custody or visitation agreement. A child needs to have a relationship with both of his or her parents unless there is an outstanding reason why it would be harmful to the child's well-being, such as one parent's criminal history…

Each morning when we can, my wife and I watch the Today Show, together. We usually record it and shrink the viewing time to about 25 minutes by skipping all the commercials and teasers. Today had already planned a series this week on Marriage, and by a look at the news recently, their timing could not have…