With Strength And Compassion
Powers Kerr & Rashidi, PLLC
It appears that the United States Navy may be the latest organization to jump on the bandwagon of extended paternity leave for new fathers. During a recent visit to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Admiral John Richardson presided over an impromptu meeting that included himself, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens, and ten sailors who had become new fathers…
A growing number of high-asset divorce cases are resolved through the still-controversial method of collaborative law, during which the parties work together to find mutual solutions to problems stemming from child custody, spousal support, property division, and other complex property litigation issues. The method is controversial because it totally eschews the traditional adversarial model. Assume that, instead of playing a…
While many states are restricting their alimony laws under tremendous pressure from advocacy groups, Texas has expanded its spousal support laws in recent years, albeit not by much. As a result, spousal support is still rather difficult to obtain. In other states, alimony is an important element of almost every property settlement in a high-asset divorce, but that is simply…
Adoption is one of the most delicate legal procedures in the Texas Family Code. Properly executed, this process brings a lifetime of joy to an adopting family. But if done improperly, this complex child custody proceeding can mean an almost unheard of amount of heartache and disappointment, to say nothing of an incredibly high financial cost. Given the amount of…
It is no secret that the higher the account balance, and more diverse the assets inside a 401k, the harder the division is in a high-asset divorce. Recent changes to the law, as well as the interpretation of existing law, has fundamentally changed the way that these retirement accounts are valued and divided pursuant to a marriage dissolution action. Valuation…
The Texas Family Code states that all visitation and custody orders must be in the best interests of the children, but the law gives little direction in terms of making that determination. Thirty years ago, the Texas Supreme Court released its landmark decision in Holly v. Adams. Parents, practitioners, and judges still rely on this opinion to legally determine the…
Texas is one of the few states that recognize informal marriages for all purposes, although most jurisdictions do give legal force and effect to common-law marriages from other states. As the name implies, an informal marriage does not require a license or ceremony. However, to dissolve one of these relationships, there must be a legal divorce and perhaps even a…
In Ireland, a parent advocacy group wants to make parental alienation syndrome (PAS) a criminal offense. PAS is quite often a part of Central Texas complex child custody issues, to one extent or another. The Parental Alienation Awareness Association defines PAS as a child’s unjustified rejection of a previously-loved parent or caregiver, at the urging of another parent or caregiver.…
What bearing does the recent data breach at the adultery site Ashley Madison have on high-asset divorces in and around Travis County? The Toronto-based company now faces several class-action lawsuits after hackers broke into the site and obtained personal information of about 39 million users, many of whom paid an additional $19 for a “permanent account deletion” that apparently never…
One of the largest assets to divide in a high-asset divorce is also one of the most difficult ones to value. Because it contains both objective and subjective financial values, and may involve both separate and community property, valuing a business is a very deliberate process that nearly always involves considerable legal debate. Some Examples The court-ordered sale of the…