DeTreville Law & Mediation, LLC
As a Charleston family lawyer, I often get asked many of the same questions by my clients, especially early on in my representation. Here are some of those questions, with the answers, that may help you start to sort through your family law matter in its early stages:
Perhaps not surprisingly, this is the most commonly asked question, week after week, year after year. Simply put, having a physical relationship [Read more…]
Ed. note: This article presupposes a “final hearing” to be one in which the parties are placing an agreement on the record with the Family Court, and are proceeding with a divorce based on one year’s separation. A “final hearing” may also refer to a contested trial, which would be an entirely different article, or more likely, series of articles.
Having braved all of the hazards of divorce, having made the difficult decisions needed to settle your differences with your spouse in a compromised agreement, and having waited out the year-long separation period r [Read more…]
Let’s be frank: most people’s idea of a good time is not spending thousands of dollars on a Charleston Family Court lawyer. Most people, when spending thousands of dollars on anything, want it to be on something tangible, or something fun, like a new car, a vacation, a child’s college tuition. Spending money on a Charleston Family Court lawyer can be made even less pleasant when you’re being led down the path of divorce by what you perceive to be your spouse’s unilateral wrongdoing, and can be complicated by the drastic financial impact already being wrought [Read more…]
As a Charleston Family Court attorney, I’ve encountered many potential clients who are either attempting to represent themselves in Family Court or have already finished represented themselves in a Family Court case. Each of these types encounter problems with the self-representation process that either require the immediate attention of an experienced lawyer or may have been screwed up past the point where even the best Charleston divorce lawyer can help.
As a matter of full disclosure, the South Carolina [Read more…]
It’s almost Valentine’s Day. Here is some holiday advice from our James Island divorce lawyers on giving your children special gifts when they are experiencing the divorce or separation of their parents.
Every holiday brings strain to children whose parents are divorced, going through a divorce, or just separated – no matter how long it has been since their parents have been together.
Father and/or Mother may now have a new spouse (stepfather or stepmother), a significant other, or just a new boyfriend or girlfriend. There may or may not be loving grandparents in the pictu [Read more…]
I got a phone call the other day from a woman whose husband I had represented in their recent divorce. She represented herself in the divorce, so I suppose she didn’t know who else to turn to, but now two years after the divorce she wanted to know if the Decree of Divorce could be amended to allow her to change her name back to her maiden name.
I asked my staff to call her back and tell her I there was nothing I could do for her, and that she would need to contact independent counsel to go about changing her name. She wanted to know why I couldn’t help her, isn’t she entitled to change her n [Read more…]
Every day we see custodial parents who are pushed to the brink by unpaid child support obligations. The child support system in South Carolina can be slow, and it certainly is imperfect, so it can seem to a parent struggling because of unpaid support that the system doesn’t work, or even worse, doesn’t care.
These feelings lead often to lead to thoughts of self-help; “if the system can’t make him pay child support maybe I can.” And what is the only “bargaining chip” a custodial parent may have in their relationship with the non-paying parent [Read more…]
Hands down, no contest, the most frequently asked question of Charleston Family Court lawyers at initial consultation is “when can I date”?
Sometimes, the question is posed more subtly, such as inquiring about going out socially in groups or wanting to know more about language which can be added into Separation Agreements allowing either spouse to live as if unmarried. Most often, however, the question is plainly put, and usually comes up at the very end of a consultation.
Since it is, obviously, a sensitive and important issue, let’s review it here.
If yo [Read more…]
One of the most common questions asked of divorce lawyers in Charleston SC is “should I leave the house?” The decision as to who stays and who goes from the marital home can be complicated by a number of different factors:
A marriage under stress resulting from physical abuse, drug or alcohol abuse, or abusive and demeaning behavior calls for personal safety to be the first consideration. If you find yourself in a living situation wher [Read more…]
We get asked if we can represent both husband and wife in a Charleston divorce with surprising frequency. Largely, it seems, the question comes from a misunderstanding over what it means for a lawyer to “represent” somebody; what they are really meaning to ask is if one lawyer can handle all of the necessary paperwork to accomplish a divorce. In circumstances where the parties have reached a full agreement on all the terms of a divorce, it is definitely acceptable for a single attorney to handle a divorce, [Read more…]
