My husband and I divorced when our son was 10 years old. He’s 16 now, and is starting to think about where he wants to go to college. I am very supportive of his aspirations, and I think that my ex probably is too. While we were married, we started an account for college savings, but it’s been a…
A couple of months after we separated, my husband talked me into signing an agreement that his lawyer wrote for him. At the time I was still reeling from our split and hoping that my husband would eventually have a change of heart. So without even really reading it, I signed. Since then, I’ve finally taken a look at…
My husband and I have been separated for a few months, and we’re headed towards a formal dissolution of our marriage. A few of my friends have told me that I better be prepared to pay a bunch of alimony to him because I make a lot more money than he does. Is this true? I thought alimony…
It’s summer, the season of weddings. Ah, weddings, those meticulously organized displays of love and commitment with all of their conventional trappings: the white satin dress! The champagne toasts! The flowers! The cover bands belting out “We Are Family”! The buffet lines!
Many weddings today are the result of months – if not years – of stressful planning, and lots…
A news story out of Chicago tells the tale of a Laura Derbigney, a Hispanic Catholic woman who claims to have recently been ordered by a court to obey Orthodox Jewish dietary restrictions and keep the Sabbath. The reason? Laura’s husband has a son with an ex-wife – an ex-wife who follows the strict dietary and other rules of…
My husband and I decided 6 months ago to get divorced. Since then he has started dating and now has a girlfriend. I am miserable and desperate to split up, but I don’t see how we can afford it.
We bought our house in 2007. We could probably just about sell it for what we paid for it, but we would have…
My husband and I split up at the end of September. He says that we can’t file a joint tax return, because we are living apart and I have already filed for divorce.
He thinks that he will be better off by filing separately. But I still have taxes withheld from my pay checks based on a joint return. …
In two previous pop quizzes, we discussed previous Washington court decisions regarding community property and community liability for torts committed by one spouse. To recap: Washington is a community property state, which generally means that all property that a couple acquires during their marriage is considered to be jointly owned by both spouses, and neither spouse can…
In this series, we’re taking a look at some Washington cases that shed some light on to what the “best interests of the child” standard means, and how it works when applied to a specific family. Last week we discussed the second factor, “the agreements of the parties.” In that article we saw just how much discretion a…
In this series, we’re taking a look at some Washington cases that shed some light on to what the “best interests of the child” standard means, and how it works when applied to a specific family. Today, in this second article in the series, we’re taking a look at the first of the seven factors that Washington courts must consider…
