The holidays can be stressful and trigger sad feelings, especially when you are going through a divorce. The holidays tend to remind people of the good times or how different your life is now. Here are 5 tips to help you cope with divorce and separation during the holidays: Recognize your emotions and honor them. Keep lines of communication open to family, friends and your therapist, and stay busy so you do not bear Read More

What is alimony? Alimony in North Carolina is an order for payment for the support and maintenance of a spouse or former spouse, periodically or in a lump sum amount for a specified or indefinite term, ordered in an action for divorce or an action for alimony without divorce. N.C. Gen. Stat. §50-16.1A(1). Alimony is not automatically awarded in divorce proceedings.  The court must first determine that one spouse is Read More

First, it is important to know your options in a custody case. The parents of shared children have the ability to negotiate and compromise to determine the best physical custody arrangement for their children. If the parents reach an agreement regarding child custody, a qualified family law attorney can draft a parenting agreement outlining the details of the child custody arrangement. If an agreement cannot be Read More

1. Create a parenting plan or holiday schedule with the children, in advance, even if it is a temporary arrangement to minimize stress during the holidays. A good idea to assist with this process is to go by the children’s school calendars if they are of school age or daycare schedule if applicable. 2. Try to put differences with your spouse aside, at least through the holidays, to make the holidays focused on your Read More

Have you ever wondered about your property’s history?  Not just the title search information from when you bought it, but going way, way back, as far as you can go? It has always fascinated me to imagine who was here before us; did anything historically important happen, or was it just a plot of ground occasionally tread over by ancient hunter-gatherers making their way to somewhere else? My maternal grandfather grew Read More

Read More

Read More

Family law deals specifically with the familial unit; spouses, parents and minor children. There are times where extended family members (i.e., grandparents, cousins, etc.) and interested parties (i.e., foster parents) are brought into family law matters, but the majority of cases are focused on the immediate family. Family law covers divorce, divorce from bed and board, equitable distribution, alimony, Read More

One of the most frequently asked questions we have encountered in real estate law is, “Why does my spouse have to sign?”  The answer to that question is, because North Carolina recognizes the existence of marital rights in real property.   Many couples today choose to keep their individual property separate, especially property owned before marriage.  But in North Carolina, real property spousal rights are written Read More