Other Family Law
How does no-fault divorce work in Tennessee?
From Daniel’s interview on ReelLawyers.com
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In Tennessee it’s called irreconcilable
differences and the only way you can get
a divorce on the basis of irreconcilable
differences in Tennessee is to have all
of those five categories that I just
listed settled resolved and agreed to in
writing you have a what’s called a
permanent parenting plan that determines
parenting time some people call it it
determines the amount of Child Support
all the variables if you have a signed
permanent parenting plan and then if you
have the other document is called a
marital dissolution agreement and it
resolves the issues of alimony and the
division of property if there’s going to
be alimony the marital dissolution
agreement has to spell out how much how
long what conditions and
contingencies the division of property
has to cover all aspect ects of what the
assets are what the debts are how
they’re going to be divided if two
people can reach a permanent parenting
plan and a marital dissolution agreement
then they can go into court and be
granted a divorce on irreconcilable
differences
What must be proved for a finding of contempt?
From Anne’s interview on ReelLawyers.com
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In Tennessee we have two types of
contempt that that are in play in Family
Law Court one is called criminal
contempt and one is called civil
contempt contempt essentially means that
one party is in violation of an order of
the Court we see this a lot uh if
somebody doesn’t pay their child support
if somebody doesn’t pay their alimony
and child support and alimony are the
only two debts out there that can get
you in jail okay so to me I tell my
clients it’s super important to stay up
on top of all their obligations
financially when they have a parenting
plan or when they have a uh divorce
where they’re required to pay some sort
of financial support to their ex-spouse
contempt it can be very serious our
judges can put you in jail for a number
of days they can fine you and depending
on how many times you have been in
contempt those fines start to rack up in
the number of days start to rack up so
it’s always my advice for my clients
particularly to stay out of contempt
just just follow the orders and the
court will be happy and we can all move
on forward with our lives but contempt
is a very real weapon that we use in
divorce court when we have somebody
who’s not playing by the rules
What is your experience in handling LGBTQ divorce?
From Anne’s interview on ReelLawyers.com
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I have represented a number of lgbtq
clients and I’ve mediated for lgbtq
clients in divorce and of course the
landscape’s changed dramatically since
the Overfelt opinion uh what we’re
seeing now the new trend is that
parenting which used to be so severely
restricted because people would uh
either adopt or um they would do inv
vitro or I UI where one partner is not
the biological parent or perhaps even
both partners aren’t the biological
parents and this would cause all sorts
of trouble in divorce and it still does
for my lgbtq clients in some ways but
our courts and our our legislature have
worked hard to try to make a framework
so that a child who has been in one
parents life who may or may not be or
who is not typically biologically
related to that child need be able to
continue that relationship and so with
marriage now being legal it’s changed
the landscape on that for every parent
who has uh adopted a child after
overfell and has been able to be married
when that child is born it’s been a a
real blessing to our lgbtq families