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When it comes to setting up a child custody schedule in Maryland as part of a divorce, small differences have the potential to have massive impacts. A difference of just a few overnights can greatly alter what will owe in child support. Potentially, one or two extra overnights may mean owing hundreds, or even thousands, less in child support every month if those extra nights give you shared custody. In other words, it pays to exercise great care when it comes to a custody schedule in a marital settlement agreement. And it pays to have an experienced Maryland child support lawyer on your side who knows this and other nuances of the law keenly well, to get you the best outcome possible.

So, how can just a slight alteration of a custody schedule make such a big difference in child support? As a recent case illustrated, the key lies in Maryland’s definition of shared custody versus sole custody. In this state, the dividing line is 35%, or roughly 128 overnights. If you have fewer than that, then the other parent has sole physical custody. If you have more than that, then you and the children’s other parent have shared physical custody.

That recent case involved a father who had visitation on alternating weekends, alternating Wednesday evenings, some federal holidays and part of the summer break. He was also required to pay $2,620 per month in child support but later asked the judge to reduce his obligation. He argued that his support obligation was being calculated as if the mother had sole physical custody but, based on the number of overnights the children had with him, the parents shared joint physical custody.

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The days and weeks that immediately follow the breakup of your marriage can be an incredibly trying time. You may feel hurt, confused, angry, frightened, overwhelmed, betrayed and a host of other emotions. You’ve experienced a great trauma, and like anyone living through that kind of pain, you may not be at your best in terms of decision-making. That includes making decisions like signing a marital settlement agreement. This is just one reason among the many why it pays to have a skilled Maryland divorce attorney on your side. You can trust your attorney to handle your legal affairs while you concentrate on managing your life.

Even if you’ve not heeded that advice, have made a bad decision by signing a bad settlement agreement without consulting an attorney, and later come to conclude that were taken advantage of, you still may have options. As one recent case illustrated, depending on just how extremely one-sided your marital settlement agreement was, you may be able to get it invalidated as ‘unconscionable’ under Maryland law.

In the recent case, the husband, G., and the wife, J., were married for six years when they separated in early 2015. Only a few days after the pair parted ways, the husband gave the wife a proposed marital settlement agreement, which the husband’s attorney had drafted. The agreement gave the husband the marital home, two rental properties, two cars, two motorcycles and all of the retirement accounts. The wife got a one-time payment of $7,000. Additionally, the agreement stated that the wife forever waived her right ever to pursue an alimony claim, either rehabilitative or permanent.

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When your marriage comes to an end, there are many things that must be resolved, one of which is custody of the children. In the past, you may have worked full-time outside the home to provide for the family financially while your spouse was a stay-at-home caregiver. Just because your spouse was the primary caregiver prior to the marriage’s end, that does not automatically mean that she is legally entitled to be the primary physical custodian after the divorce. The court must decide custody based on the best interest of the children and there is large list of legal factors the judge must look at, with past arrangements being only one factor among many.

In other words, if you desire to be your children’s primary physical custodian, do not despair just because your ex was a stay-at-home parent prior to the divorce. Instead, consult with an experienced Maryland family law attorney and learn more about how to pursue your goals in your case.

As an example of a case where the “stay-at-home” parent didn’t receive primary physical custody after the divorce, there’s the case of A.P. and J.P., who began divorce proceedings in 2017. The husband had been an active member of the U.S. Navy for more than a decade. The wife was very briefly employed during that time, but mostly stayed home to care for the children.

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Sometimes, family court cases may require a heavy focus on the facts in order to resolve. However, that is not always the case. Some family court cases can turn on a party’s knowledge – or lack thereof – of the rules of court procedure. To be sure you’re in the best position possible, be prepared with representation from a skilled Maryland family law attorney.

As an example, there’s the recent case between C.C. and A.S. The pair were reportedly in an intense dispute regarding custody of their two daughters. The dispute escalated after the mother placed an app on each of the daughters’ cell phones that allowed her to monitor from a remote location the girls’ texts and social media posts in real time.

When the parents went to court in Queen Anne’s County, the mother was prepared to offer evidence regarding the content of certain texts between the father and the daughters. The father argued that the mother had violated Maryland’s Wiretap and Electronic Surveillance Act and asked the judge to exclude all of this text-message evidence. The trial judge sided with the father and kept all of the text-related evidence out of the trial.

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When you are attempting to get divorced, some people think that it can be very simple as long as the two spouses have been separated for sufficient length of time and there is no dispute about property, spousal support or child issues. For these (mistaken) reasons, too many people try to tackle the legal process of getting a divorce on their own.

The reality is that getting a divorce, whether or not it is a contested matter, often requires careful attention to the rules and detailed knowledge of the law. You have to how to include the proper provisions in your divorce petition, you have to know how to go about serving notice of the filing on your spouse in a way that meets the law’s requirements and you have to know what to do if your spouse does not respond to your filings. Those are but three examples of things that can stymie someone not familiar with the law and the system, and all are examples of how an experienced Maryland family law attorney can help most any spouse seeking to obtain a divorce.

Here’s a recent real-life example. Q.Z. and X.H. were a Chinese couple who married in that country in 1994 and had two children in the United States, one in 2004 and one in 2006. The couple separated in 2012 and Q.Z. (the father), along with the children, returned to live in China, allegedly with no opposition from the mother. The mother remained in Maryland. The father filed for divorce in Maryland in November 2017.

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In many marital relationships, the spouses share much in common. They may share not only common interests, but also similar degrees of intellect and/or education. However, not all marriages work this way. Some may, in fact, have significant disparities of intellect, education or earning capacity.

A large disparity can matter a great deal if that marriage ends in divorce. It can be important because the disparity may open the door for the dependent spouse to argue successfully that his spouse used her position of dominance to create a marital settlement agreement that was the product of fraud. What this should tell you is that, even if you got your spouse’s signature on the “dotted line” of a settlement agreement, you may not be finished litigating those issues, which is one more reason why you need experienced Maryland family law counsel on your side.

How does this type of fraud argument work? A recent case originating in Montgomery County is a good example. K.P. and W.P. were spouses who separated in 2012. In September 2016, the wife’s lawyer drafted a “comprehensive settlement agreement resolving all issues arising out of the marriage.” The wife signed it in the lawyer’s office. She then allegedly asked the husband to meet her at a bank later that same day.

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The creator of a series of cops-and-lawyers weekly TV dramas was in the news headlines recently, but the courtroom in question was not a fictional scene from one of his successful shows. Instead, a (very non-fictional) California appeals court issued a ruling related to the producer’s divorce case that closed the door on a fraud lawsuit the man’s ex-wife had been attempting to litigate.

While the producer’s case played out in California, you may find yourself wondering, “Is there such a thing as a fraud claim related to divorce in Maryland and, if so, what should I do if I find myself facing such a case?” Whenever you are going through divorce, or any legal action related to your divorce, one of the keys to being as successful as possible is to be sure you have an experienced Maryland family law attorney on your side to give you the answers you need to all the questions you may have.

In Maryland, there is a very specific way in which the law and the courts look at fraud that is tied to a divorce proceeding. Specifically, the law divides this kind of fraud into two categories: intrinsic fraud and extrinsic fraud. In this context, intrinsic fraud is fraud that is tied to issues pertaining to the original divorce litigation, or things that were (or could have been) litigated in that case. Extrinsic fraud means something that was so hidden that it prevented the parties from litigating that issue in a meaningful way and prevented the court from making a complete ruling because the hidden issue was never presented to the fact-finder. This latter type of fraud is considered more egregious.

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If you know a little bit about Maryland family law, then you may know that, even if you are awarded permanent alimony in your divorce, that support may not always be permanent. The law allows your ex-spouse to get that obligation modified if he can show that he underwent a change in his financial circumstances that qualifies as “substantial.”

For most people, transitioning from the world of work to retirement involves a significant change in income. So, does that necessarily mean that, if your spouse retires, you automatically lose your much-needed alimony? No, it doesn’t. You still have various ways in which you can defeat a motion asking the judge to modify the alimony obligation you’re receiving. One of the best ways to avail yourself to those options is to retain a skilled Maryland family law attorney.

If your spouse has filed a motion to terminate or modify an existing alimony obligation that you’re receiving, two ways in which you can attack this request and keep your alimony payments at their current level are:

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One goal for divorce is to create closure and free up both spouses to move on with their separate lives. Sometimes, that means certain things financially like selling the marital home. If you think that the proposed sale is improper, whether because the sale price is too low, the broker commission is too high or something else, you have certain legal options you can take. However, it is important to be forewarned: simply because you file the proper paperwork objecting to the proposed sale, that does not automatically mean that the trial judge must hold a hearing before ruling on your objection, as one husband learned recently.

Whether you are the spouse supporting a proposed sale of the marital home or opposing it, it pays to have an experienced Maryland family law attorney on your side.

Y.A. and N.A. were couple going through a divorce where selling the marital home was an issue. The judge handling their divorce case ordered the couple to split everything related to the sale 50-50. Each spouse would pay half the costs and fees of the sale, and each spouse would receive half the proceeds after the sale was finished.

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A recent child custody case ruling made by the Court of Special Appeals offers parents in custody disputes several very important pieces of information. One, the ruling explains many of the legal standards that judges use to resolve custody disputes. Two, as the court stated, in “custody disputes, the ‘overarching consideration’ is the best interest of the child.” This, of course, is as it should be. When it comes to advocating for your child and your relationship with that child in a legal custody matter, be sure you are protecting that relationship by securing legal representation from a knowledgeable Maryland family law attorney.

That recent case involved the custody of a girl named K.T. From the time that K.T. was born until she was almost 9, her parents lived together with her in Prince George’s County. In 2016, however, a fight between the mother and the daughter escalated to an altercation between the two parents and ended with the mother receiving a protective order and the father being ordered to leave the home. Eventually, the courts decided that the parents should, on a temporary basis, share joint legal custody and have equal physical custody on a week-on-week-off basis.

The court assigned a custody evaluator to the case. The evaluator concluded that both parents were fit, that both homes were appropriate for custody and visitation, and that both parents communicated with each other effectively in matters regarding K.T. The father was open to a 50-50 custody arrangement; the mother less so. Based on the evaluator’s evaluation and other evidence, the trial court ordered that the parents share joint legal custody and share physical custody on a 50-50 basis. The mother appealed, but the appeals court upheld what the trial court ordered.

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