Articles

How Are Retirement Accounts Divided in Divorce?

Retirement plan with calculator pen and glasses

Dividing assets in a divorce or dissolution is often challenging. Sometimes the issue is that both spouses want an item that is unique or has sentimental value. Other times, there may be a question about whether an asset is marital property that is subject to division in divorce, or separate property that belongs to one […]

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Ten Tips for Social Media During Your Family Court Matter

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“The unexamined life is not worth living.” While Socrates was referring to self-examination, social media has changed that meaning for many people today. These days, plenty of people feel that life isn’t worth living unless it’s examined, and approved, by everyone else via posts, tweets, stories, snaps, and videos. Unfortunately, that can be a dangerous […]

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Coronavirus and Child Support: What to Do if Your Income Has Changed

$100 Corona Virus

Every day, we are getting more news about the coronavirus and most of it is discouraging: more and more people are getting sick, many are dying, and a vaccine may be more than a year away.  As if the health news isn’t enough of a burden, it is accompanied by an economic tsunami. With so […]

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Managing Parenting Time During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Child with teddy bear

Co-parenting, even at the best of times, is a challenge. Keeping your family healthy—mentally, emotionally, and physically—during a pandemic is a new and unfamiliar challenge. Trying to do all of this at once piles additional stress onto an already stressful situation. The coronavirus pandemic compounds the difficulties of raising a child in two separate households. […]

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Collecting Overdue Child Support in Ohio

scale concept image.

As family law attorneys, we are frequently asked by clients what they can do about enforcing court orders and collecting child support that is due, but unpaid. They may have a co-parent who is paid under the table, has unreliable or fluctuating income, is self-employed, or who manages to dodge payments in other ways. They […]

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Tax Tips for Divorcing Parents (and the Newly Divorced)

money worries state of man reading paper.

Divorce brings many adjustments: different living arrangements, different schedules with the kids, different expenses, and different budgets. If you’ve gotten divorced within the last year, there is one more change you are probably dealing with right now: filing your income taxes without a spouse. This adjustment can be a painful one, and not just for […]

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Eight Tips for Successful Stepparenting

Family photo of stock people

Marriage and parenting both have their challenges. Marriage to someone who has children from a previous relationship offers its own unique set of challenges as you have suddenly become a stepparent. Don’t get us wrong: becoming a stepparent carries its own unique blessings. Your family has grown; you have been given the opportunity to love […]

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Deviating From the Ohio Child Support Guidelines

Legal Agreement between 2 people over a gavel.

In 2018, there was a major overhaul to Ohio child support law, in an effort to bring it (literally) into the 21st century and account for the realities that modern families must deal with. While the new guidelines more closely reflect the needs of Ohio families, there remain some situations in which ordering child support […]

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Co-Parenting After High-Conflict Divorce

Child holding ears and parents fighting | paper cut out of family and gavel | Melissa Graham-Hurd & Associates

Parenting is challenging. Co-parenting after divorce is even more so, with different households with different rules and different schedules, not to mention frequent issues with finances and communication problems. But co-parenting after high-conflict divorce can be much more difficult. It can feel like being ordered to do a flawless ballroom dance routine with someone who […]

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Grey Divorce: What it Is, Why it Happens, How to Plan

Lady with man in background | paper cut out of family and gavel | Melissa Graham-Hurd & Associates

The term “grey divorce” refers to the breakdown and breakup of long-term marriages, or marriages of those in their mid-fifties and beyond. Most of us have an expectation that once a couple has made it past some of the struggles common in young marriages—tight budgets, the chaos of raising small children—the rest is smooth sailing. […]

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