Family Law ServicesLawCare – Family Law Center was developed to provide you with a family practitioner for all the legal matters that may touch your family across generations. -- In finalizing an adoption, you will want to consider your will and guardianship. -- In finalizing your divorce, you may want to consider prenuptial planning for your next marriage. -- In probating an estate, you may want to consider setting up your own trust and testamentary documents to make the process easier for your heirs. LawCare – Family Law Center will provide your family’s legal needs from “cradle to casket”. MEDIATIONMediation provide the opportunity to settle any matter through the use of a neutral party to sort our and resolve the disputes. Such as in a divorce, a mediator can help the parties reach a resolution on how to divide the residential time of the children, how to divide the assets, and how to establish alimony obligations. The process requires a mind-set of resolution and not one of retaliation, however, it is very cost-effective and often the results are better than those reached in the courtroom under the stress of litigation. DIVORCE AND SEPARATION, POST-DIVORCE ENFORCEMENT OF COURT ORDERS, QDRO'sDivorce is not uncommon and should not be a process of retaliating for the wrongs done against you. Often the parties wait too long to get a divorce and by the time they start the process the emotions are hot and their lives are in chaos. We encourage clients to take a realistic approach to their marriage relationship. If they don’t have a healthy partnership in the areas of social, emotion, financial, intimacy and spiritual, they are much better off out of the marriage. Post-divorce enforcement is required when one party does not do the things they were required to do under the court orders, such as transfer retirement funds, establish life insurance policies, pay alimony, transfer other property rights, etc. QDROs are legal documents that pass retirement assets from one party to another. PROBATING AN ESTATE – CONTESTING A WILLThe probate process is one of collecting all the assets of a deceased person, paying all their bills and establishing a distribution. If there is a will, this is done in accordance with the expressed desires of the decedent. If there is no will, the distribution is done in accordance with the laws of “intestacy”. There are situations when a will may be contested. This means that a potential heir may make a claim that the will was defective and was not the true desires of the decedent. In Tennessee, if a will is changed shortly before one dies of a terminal illness and the will is done in secrecy, there is a high likelihood that the will can be challenged. ADOPTION AND SURROGACYAdoption is an act of unselfish love. For an adult to take on the child of another and give them the care and love of a parent takes a strong will and desire to give of oneself. Too many children are born as “mistakes” and too many would-be parents are left childless. We strive to make the adoption professional, compassionate, and seamless. Surrogacy is creation and development of a child through the use of another woman who carries a child that may or may not be genetically related to the parents. This, as well, requires selfless commitments from the birth mother and the prospective parents. PATERNITY, CHILD SUPPORT, AND VISITATIONPaternity orders are part of the process when a child is born out-of-wedlock. A biological father may sign the birth certificate, but will still not have the rights for time with the child until court orders allow him such. For a child born out-of-wedlock, the law holds that the mother is the ‘natural’ custodian until decided otherwise by a court. Child support is the obligation of both parents to support the child. In Tennessee, the use of the “income shares” child support model has made substantial changes to the financial obligations of parties. Visitation is the old term that has now evolved into the term “residential schedule”. The Courts require the development of a Parenting Plan which sets forth time with the child, decision making, tax deductions, child support, transportation and other matter related to co-parenting. DEPENDANT AND NEGLECT PETITIONS / GRANDPARENTS' RIGHTSANY person who feels that a child is being willfully neglected or harmed by a parent or custodian may bring a court action defined as a “dependent and neglect petition”. There are situations where grandparents or other relatives feel they need to step in to protect a child, either temporarily or permanently. The dependent and neglect process goes through the juvenile courts and provides for custody, child support and often some visitation to the parent. PRE-NUPTIAL AND PRE-MARRIAGE PLANNINGPre-nuptial planning should be on the agenda of every person getting married. So much time and money goes into the planning of the wardrobe of the wedding party, the wedding guests and the honeymoon, but seldom does the couple sit down with a professional and discuss what their legal obligations are to each other once they are a legal partnership. Marriage, after all, was created by the legislature and divorce was created by the legislature. Getting handle on the other legal obligations of the relationship is critical. A joint will allows a husband and wife to enter into a will together which provides for the other and then distributes the remaining assets to the children. NAME CHANGESA name change is not unusual. Sometimes a person has always been referred to by a nickname and at some point in their life they want that to be their legal name. You must show that you have no felony convictions related to fraud and that there is no fraudulent intent on making the name change. TESTAMENTARY PLANNING, TRUSTS, WILLS, AND GUARDIANSHIPEVERY person should think forward to the end….. Every person should spend a few moments to sit down and think, “if I died tomorrow”….. There are many sorrowful stories of persons who do not plan ahead and face an untimely demise. We will take a general overview of your assets, your goals, your spouse, your children and design a plan that will help your heirs go through this process with ease. CONSERVATORSHIP, POWERS OF ATTORNEY, AND LIVING WILLSThere comes a time in the process of aging that a person looses the capacity to take care of their financial affairs or can no longer make appropriate medical decisions for themselves. Much of this can be addressed ahead of time through proper planning. But if the planning has not taken place, it may be necessary to ask the Court to appoint a person to make these decisions. This is a conservatorship. Conservatorship applies not only to care for the elderly, but for the care of those who are mentally or physically incapacitated because of mental retardation, degenerative disease (such as cerebral palsy) or coma resulting from an accident. CRIMINAL ARRESTS FOR ACTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ORDER OF PROTECTIONWhen a home has reduced to the chaotic state where acts of violence interrupt daily living, a person may be arrested. The victim may need the protection of a court order requiring the person to stay away. Whenever these acts occur, the assistance of professional legal counsel is paramount. Criminal histories last forever, to say nothing of the damage that could be done by the actual violence. CHILD CUSTODY MODIFICATION AND PARENTING PLANSLife changes and children change. It is not unreasonable to assume that throughout the course of childhood that the needs of the child will differ. Those who have the best interests of the children at heart will be willing to negotiate changes in their residential schedule. The alternative to mediating or negotiating these changes is the process of requiring the parties to seek relief in the court process. Parenting Plans at set forth residential schedules, decision-making responsibilities, child support, tax deductions and other parental rights of co-parenting. POST-DIVORCE ENFORCEMENT OF ORDERS, MODIFICATIONS, AND PARENTAL RELOCATION / POST-DIVORCE APPEALSWhen a person does not comply with court order of child support and alimony, it may require that a petition be brought before the court. The petition may ask that the person be put in jail for their failure to pay as punishment (criminal contempt) or may ask that they be incarcerated until they have made full payment (civil contempt).
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Family Law Overview
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