Family Law

Despite the satisfaction and joy of receiving an adopted child, there may be many hurdles and legal complications for the family to confront. An attorney can guide you through the adoption and ensure a smoother legal process.

Alimony is the obligation to provide spousal support after separation or divorce. It can exist for a certain period of time or until the spouse remarries or dies, and can also be paid in a lump sum. Factors used to consider alimony include the marriage’s length, each party’s health, the assets each party owns, and the contributions of each party to child-raising, homemaking, and career building.

Under most circumstances, shared custody is awarded by the court system. Child custody is decided by a judge who considers the sex and age of the child and the ability of each parent to care for that child. Children ages 14 and up may normally choose which parent to live with; ages 11–13 may speak to the judge, but the judge does not have to follow the child’s wishes.

Joint legal custody is where both parents have equal responsibility for major decisions regarding the child. Joint physical custody is where there is equal time and contact with both parents. The court can award both, or either one. The parties should try to agree, or the court will decide who has the right to make the decisions.

Contempt is the purposeful violation of a court order. Failure to pay support payments, or not following custody/visitation orders, are examples of contempt. The person can be punished by having to pay a fine and/or serving up to twenty days in jail for each violation.

A contested divorce needs to show some form of “fault” or misconduct by one of the parties. Examples include adultery, mental incapacity during the marriage, desertion, fraud in obtaining the marriage, imprisonment or conviction for certain crimes, cruel mental or physical treatment, drug addiction or intoxication, or impotency at the time of marriage. It is not necessarily advantageous to establish a “fault” divorce.

A legal separation is when a couple is no longer having marital relations. To file for divorce, you must be in a state of separation. “Separate maintenance” refers to a Georgia lawsuit that addresses issues in a divorce case aside from the actual granting of a divorce. Separate maintenance is sometimes granted for reasons such as moral or religious opposition to divorce, or for the client’s legal benefit such as social security or insurance. Where both parties cannot resolve their issues, a judge will resolve financial issues like alimony, child support, property division, and debt division, and the final decision is written into a binding court order.

If a person has touched you intending harm, intimidation, or restraint to your body, you should report it to the police. Victims of domestic violence can obtain a temporary restraining order, and the courts can decide custody and child support issues. There are also people wrongfully accused of such violence, and the lawyer’s job is to strip away the emotionalism of the issue and get down to the facts. For those wrongfully accused, your defense attorney can fight false allegations; for those in danger, your attorney can help you obtain a temporary restraining order issued by the courts.

Fathers are becoming more recognized and accepted in the court system as equal partners for parenting and support of children. A father often needs support and has the right to visitation and custody. Grandparents’ rights to custody and access to children are increasing in familiarity in the Georgia court system, and an attorney will work to hear the grandparent’s story and fight for their rights.

Mediation can help keep a family unit from further deterioration and can save thousands of dollars in legal fees. Obstacles to mediation include a lack of preparation, unrealistic expectations, lack of commitment, inability to make a decision, and positional bargaining. It is very important to have all your records and information at hand so that intelligent decisions can be made, and to figure out your own personal goals. Approaching the situation as if it is a business deal allows for a quicker decision-making process; it is ideal for the parties to negotiate so the results are beneficial to both.

A Modification of Child Support can be filed, but generally not if a previous Modification of Child Support action was brought by the same party within the prior two years.

Paternity awareness determines that the natural father of the child must pay support. Legitimation establishes the father’s RIGHT to custody and time to parent. A lawyer helps you through each of these processes.

A well-drafted prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can help you protect property in the event of divorce. An attorney can assist in defining the division of marital property and inform you of your legal rights.

Upon divorcing a spouse, normally the property you acquired during the marriage will be equitably divided. An attorney can assist in the division of marital property and inform you of your legal rights.

Victims of violence have the right to file for a restraining order against their abuser. Restraining orders are legal injunctions issued due to harassment, stalking, domestic violence, or sexual assault. The abuser is not allowed to contact the victim at home, work, or school, including contact by phone, mail, fax, email, or gifts.

A broken marriage is proven when one of the parties can show, through sworn testimony, that the marriage is over, even when there are no evident “fault” grounds.

For a marriage to be valid, you must be at least 16 years old, or if younger, have a parent’s consent. The relationship must be proper, in the sense that the people cannot be closely related to each other. The final requirement is that any previous marriage has been dissolved.

A prenuptial agreement that is well drafted can help you keep your property in the event of divorce.

You may change the prenuptial’s terms by adding an addendum that has been properly signed and witnessed, and it can become part of the original agreement.

One or both spouses must live in Georgia for at least six months to get a divorce here.

There are 13 grounds for filing for a divorce in Georgia. The most common is the no-fault divorce, which is the least contentious form. The remaining twelve grounds are “fault” grounds.

The person seeking divorce files a document called a “complaint” or “petition” in the correct Superior Court. It includes information such as current living arrangements, marital assets and debts, children of the marriage, and specific reasons for the divorce. This complaint is served on the other spouse (the defendant) by a sheriff of the particular county, or that spouse can acknowledge service by signing a document in a notary public’s presence.

A temporary hearing may be requested by either spouse to address issues like visitation, child custody, debts and possession of property, and alimony, in order to resolve these on a temporary basis until final resolution.

No, abandonment itself is not a ground, but desertion is. Desertion is the willful and continued desertion by either party for one year.

Under O.C.G.A. Section 19-4-1, an annulment may NOT be granted if children were or are to be born as a result of the marriage.

Georgia marital property is acquired during and as part of the marriage, a common example is a house jointly bought by spouses. Property owned individually before the marriage, such as bank accounts, is generally not marital property, and property acquired individually by gift or inheritance during the marriage is often considered separate. Be careful: individual property can become marital property if, for example, a separately purchased car is shared and used jointly, a court may treat it as “converted” marital property.

Yes. The court can order that a spouse leave the home and pay support before the divorce is finalized, and may award temporary child custody and visitation rights. In some circumstances, the court can order a party to vacate the marital residence during this period.